Mthabisi Tshuma and Michelle Nyanzira, Chronicle Reporters
GOVERNMENT today will launch the second phase of the successful Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme to increase household and national food security through farm mechanisation.

Having gone through one of the most bountiful harvests brought by plenty of rains and the conservation agricultural technique, Government has now set sight on implementing a farm mechanisation drive for the next summer cropping season.

In launching the second Pfumvudza/Intwasa phase, Government has invited two farmer representatives from each province to share their success stories in an event to be held at Domboshava in Mashonaland East Province today.

The “farmer peer review” strategy is meant to give insight into how the second phase of Pfumvudza/Intwasa will be of value this time around and also enable Government to map the way forward on the rolling out of the conservation agriculture programme.

The launch will be focused more on the mechanisation process as the Government aims at maximising the beneficiaries from three million to five million households countrywide.

This comes after the first phase was a success as there was timely distribution of farming inputs and good rains leading to over a million tonnes of maize tonnes.

Last year, Government introduced the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme to counter climate change-induced weather patterns that had seen the country enduring successive years of drought that resulted in poor harvests.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Mashonaland Central Provincial Agritex Officer, Mr Stancilae Tapererwa, said the second launch comes after the success of the first phase.

“The second phase launch comes because God was on our side and he gave us rains plus we received the Presidential inputs in time and supported about 2,3 million households with the output being about one million tonnes of maize which is a record for this country.

“The average yield per hectare was about 5,28 tonnes and we are going to mechanise the programme where farmers will access machinery available on the market to make Pfumvudza a success again,” said Mr Tapererwa.

Mr Tapererwa said they have started to work on sourcing funds for this year’s inputs.

“The thinking that since its labour intensive we have started working on the inputs that we require so that we submit to Treasury. So, everything depends on the Treasury

“We want the farmers to receive all the inputs before the onset of the rain,” said Mr Tapererwa. — @mthabisi_mthire/@michieroxy