Dry planting for crops such as rapoko has already started.

THE drought-prone Matabeleland region is bracing for yet another dry spell following the Meteorological Services Department’s warnings of below normal rains in the next agricultural season.
In readiness for the drought, the three Matabeleland provinces have come up with survival strategies to see them through the looming dry spell expected in the 2015-2016 farming season.
The Department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services (Agritex) in Matabeleland North and Bulawayo provinces, has prepared a document titled Seasonal Forecast, Implications for Matabeleland North Province, which contains a survival strategy for farmers.
The document contains the starting and ending dates for the cropping season, district by district, that seeks to guide farmers on options available to them.
In Bubi, the season is expected to start on November 20 and end on March 10, while in Nyamandlovu it is expected to run from November 25 up to March 23.
“Use these guidelines to select varieties for your area, and for each variety look for information on the number of days to physiological maturity,” part of the Agritex document reads.
The document further explains that rainfall forecasts use probabilities which look at the amount of rainfall likely to be received in a particular season and not its distribution.
“A normal meteorological season might not always mean a normal agricultural season.
“It could either be a drought, a normal or wet agricultural season,” the document notes.
Farmers have been encouraged to practise moisture conservation by way of tied ridges, use of cover crops such as pumpkins, runner beans and melons.
Farmers in the Matabeleland provinces of North and South have also been encouraged to rotate crops, manage soil fertility by considering the use of organic fertility management options such as manure, compost and anthill and the use of correct plant population for each crop to ensure they harvest something.
Meanwhile, despite spirited attempts by farmers in Matabeleland to increase their hectarage of small grains, most of them have remained adamant on growing the staple crop, maize.
Dumisani Nyoni, the chief Agritex officer for Matabeleland North and Bulawayo, said farmers were citing a number of reasons for resisting growing small grains.
“Some of these reasons include the younger generation now preferring sadza made from maize meal to small grains. The small grain seeds are also unavailable and they also cite the labour associated with processing small grains,” he said.
It is understood that attempts are underway to lobby policy makers to make small grains part of the National Strategic Grain Reserve to ensure that more farmers venture into the crops.
Nyoni said the Grain Marketing Board should also offer a facility whereby small grains can be exchanged for maize if growing of such crops was going to be on a large scale in this country.
The Zimbabwe Farmers Union Matabeleland South chairman, Douglas Sibanda, said as part of their preparations for the cropping season, they were encouraging farmers to form groups and buy seed in bulk in order to cut on costs.
“This year, we are emphasising on small grains because maize is likely not to fully mature compared to sorghum and millet,” he said.
He, however, noted that expectations were that 75 percent of farmers in the province would still plant maize.
Dry planting for crops such as rapoko has already started, and farming experts point out that the only salvation for the dry prone regions which are already facing critical food challenges was the planting of small grains.
Donald Khumalo, the past-president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union, also weighed in with the same plea and challenged Matabeleland farmers to reduce their maize hectarage this year and focus on small grains in light of the predicted poor rainfall season.
“In order to save livestock from succumbing to drought, farmers have to reserve fodder for their stock.
“This time around things are really tight and we have to think outside the box,” said Khumalo.
Matabeleland North agronomist, Davison Masendeke, said despite resistance by farmers, the farmland for small grains was slowly increasing with each agricultural season.
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