Pfumvudza/Intwasa farmers have started planting summer crops in most parts of the country, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development has said.

The programme is this year supporting production of maize, sorghum, pearl millet, soya beans, sunflower, groundnuts, vegetables and cow peas.

Agritex chief agronomist Mrs Rutendo Nhongonhema yesterday said most farmers in Masvingo, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North had started planting their Pfumvudza plots. “Most farmers with irrigation and those in wetlands have started planting summer crops,” she said. “Farmers benefiting under the Pfumvudza/Intwasa will start planting this week, but most of them who planted were irrigating the holes.”

Mrs Nhongonhema said farmers were planting with two litres of water per every planting station.

Last week, Agritex revealed that over 1,8 million households had prepared, with more than 207 022 households having competed the preparations by holing all five plots.

Agritex said all smallholder farmers participating in the programme were expected to have received their inputs by November 15.

The Presidential Inputs Programme is targeting 2,3 million small scale farms in communal, A1, small scale commercial farming and old resettlement sectors for cereals, oil seeds and legumes.

The scheme provides training a scientifically-proven system of conservation agriculture, as well as the inputs and the aim is to ensure that the farms are run as proper businesses, with the farmers retaining what they need for on-farm consumption and selling the rest of the harvest.

The scheme adopted the Pfumvudza/Conservation Agriculture concept based on the principles of minimum soil disturbance (holing out), mulching to conserve moisture, timeliness of operations and adoption of good agronomic practices.

Success of the Pfumvudza programme last season saw more farmers adopting the cropping technique this time and they have undergone training.

Agritex is training both old and new farmers and only when one would have finished the recommended land preparations are inputs distributed.

In the 2021/22 summer programme, the target is to sustainably increase crop production and productivity to meet and surpass the national requirements for both human consumption and industrial use through the implementation of the key tenets of the Agriculture Recovery Plan.