From George Maponga recently in CHIREDZI
Sugarcane farmers in the Lowveld have given Command Agriculture in Masvingo a major boost by indicating their readiness to avail thousands of hectares of land to grow maize under the Government’s initiative.The Command Agriculture seeks to help the country achieve food self-sufficiency.The farmers said the province could easily achieve or surpass its target to put 4 000 hectares under irrigated maize by taking advantage of the idle land among sugarcane out-growers in Chiredzi.
Indigenous sugarcane outgrowers own more than 15 000 hectares of irrigable land, part of which could be set aside to grow maize for three months until the water supply situation to irrigate sugarcane improves.Most sugarcane farmers failed to plant new cane owing to inadequate water for irrigation as major dams are either critically low or empty.
So far Masvingo has managed to secure nearly 2 200 hectares of irrigable land for the Command Agriculture initiative from individual farmers and small irrigation schemes in the province.
The bulk of the secured land is in Chiredzi and Masvingo districts which are the major irrigation hubs in the drought- prone province.
Commercial Sugar Cane Farmers Association of Zimbabwe (CSFAZ) secretary-general Mr Roy Bhila, at the weekend said sugarcane farmers were prepared to offer land for Command Agriculture.
Mr Bhila said the offer of part of their irrigable land for the food initiative would not harm sugar production.‘’Those who are driving the Command Agriculture initiative in Masvingo should have approached farmers’ associations for assistance in identifying idle land that could be used for Command Agriculture,’’ he said.
Mr Bhika’s sentiments were echoed by Chiredzi West House of Assembly member, Cde Darlington Chiwa, who said there was a lot of irrigable land that could be harnessed.‘’Most cane farmers failed to plough-out their fields to plant new cane this year because of the risks associated with irrigation water inadequacies and with good planning quite a sizeable chunk of land could have already been secured to grow irrigated maize from farmers,’’ he said.
‘’Maize requires only three months to mature so cane farmers can easily grow it and then revert to cane upon harvest. The production of maize would not affect sugar output because the staple crop would be grown on land that could have been idle because of insufficient water from irrigation.
“Every year a cane farmer should at least plough-out at least 10 percent of their land to put new cane and this is the land that could be used for maize production,’’ added Mr Chiwa who is also a cane farmer at Triangle.
Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister Senator Shuvai Mahofa, said the response by Chiredzi farmers to Command Agriculture was encouraging.
‘’We cannot approach farmers’ associations to request irrigable land to grow maize, we are approaching individual farmers because they are the ones who have the land. I am happy that more farmers from Chiredzi are still coming to register for Command Agriculture and this is very encouraging,’’ she said.
‘’The majority of the farmers who have registered for the initiative are from Chiredzi and Masvingo districts because there are the only two districts where major irrigation can take place in the province. I cannot give figures of the number of farmers who have registered in the two districts, but more are still coming,’’ added Sen Mahofa.
The $500 million programme is expected to produce 2 million tonnes of maize from 400 000 hectares, half of which will be under irrigation in the current agricultural season.