Midlands Bureau
The crop situation in the Midlands province is dire with most now a write-off, provincial crop and livestock officer Mrs Madelina Magwenzi has said.

She said the only hope was with irrigated crops.

“We are still in the process of assessing the crop situation district-by-district, but the reports we have on the ground are that most of the crops are now a write-off,” she said.

Mrs Magwenzi said farmers with irrigation that had managed to control the fall armyworm were better off.

“The challenge is that we have very few areas with irrigation in the province,” she said.

Mrs Magwenzi said livestock were also likely to be affected in most parts of the province where grazing pastures were already dwindling. “We also have a problem in terms of our livestock in the province. We have areas like Mberengwa and Gokwe North where there were no rains received with some livestock starving already,” she said.

Mrs Magwenzi urged farmers in the hard-hit areas to consider de-stocking to minimise losses. “Most of these peasant farmers do not have capital to buy feed for their livestock so the best plan is to de-stock so that they minimise the losses,” she said.