ZFU urges farmers to use irrigation

THE Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union (ZFU) has urged farmers with access to irrigation facilities to exploit the usage of the infrastructure to complement the rainfall being received across the country and avoid total crop failure.

ZFU president, Mr Abdul Nyathi, said rains being received across the country were not adequate for this year’s cropping season.

This season, Zimbabwe was expected to receive normal to below normal rainfall.

“This time of the year in the normal seasons, we should have crops that are almost mature or toward maturation.

“The only way to improve crop production this year is through irrigation, there is no way out,” he said.

Mr Nyathi said it was unfortunate that most farmers did not have access to irrigation facilities.

“There is a very negligible number of farmers with irrigation. With over 70 percent of Zimbabweans living off agriculture, there have been calls for the Government to invest more in irrigation to increase production and ensure food security,” he said.

“The majority of Zimbabwean farmers rely on rainwater to irrigate, so when the rains stay away, their crops fail resulting in many households requiring food aid.”

Mr Nyathi said the country has many water bodies which were not being harnessed to irrigate crops and this was leaving communities vulnerable to the effects of increasingly variable rainfall due to climate change.

In recent weeks, a dry spell has been experienced across the country but conditions have improved lately following some downpours throughout Zimbabwe.

The rains have brought relief to most farmers across the country as their crops were suffering from moisture stress raising hopes that the plants will recover.

The farmers were beginning to lose hope due to the continued dry spell and erratic rains.

However, ZFU has urged farmers to continue planting despite the dry spell and erratic rains.

— @queentauruszw.