Elita Chikwati
Agriculture Reporter
Farmers have been urged to protect their grain from post-harvest losses to preserve the bumper harvest that Zimbabwe is expecting, and ensure household food security.

The country expects 2,7 million tonnes of maize, the highest in over 20 years, but there are fears that the yield could be lost if farmers do not institute measures to protect the grain, especially against veld fire.

Agritex director, Mr Stancilae Tapererwa yesterday said farmers should protect grain from pests, rodents and veld fire.

He said the high rainfall received last season had resulted in an increase in vegetation, which was a high risk in the event of a veld fire outbreak and farmers were urged to make fireguards and acquire knowledge on fire-fighting to reduce fire losses.

“Farmers should take advantage of the increase in herbage and start harvesting it for use as mulch in their Pfumvudza plots.

“The farmers can also harvest the grass for use as stock feed and realise an income. We are discouraging farmers from starting unnecessary fires. Farmers should also make fireguards to reduce the spread of veld fires,” he said.

Farmers were also advised to ensure crops were protected from pests through the use of grain protectants. A farmer can incur huge losses after harvesting, and experts say post-harvest losses could be as high as 30 percent.

This presents, not only a loss of food and nutrition, but also all the inputs used along the crop production and storage chain such as land preparation, fertilisers, seeds, pesticides and transportation.