2019/2020 Farming Season Not Yet A Write-off - Farmers' Union

Farmers are hopeful that a good harvest can still be salvaged if the prevailing rainfall continues until the middle of March.

Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) executive director, Paul Zakariya, told Business Times that grain output could exceed one million tonnes if the rainfall patterns remain favourable. He said:

If rains continue pounding [like what happened in the past week and over the weekend] till mid-March, yields will improve and the country will certainly reduce agriculture imports thereby saving elusive foreign currency.

We will continue having that hope of continuous rainfall patterns but the yields won’t be as good as we had expected.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president, Wonder Chabikwa, encouraged farmers to practice conservative farming methods and harvest rainwater for irrigation.

Meanwhile, the Meteorological Services Department (MSD) has predicted that the country is likely to receive good rainfall until the end of February.

MSD senior forecaster, James Ngoma, said the highest rainfall was received on Thursday at Mupfurudzi Resettlement (64 millimetres), Arcturus (61 mm), Wedza (43mm), Mt Darwin (43mm), Chipinge (39mm) and Harare Golf Club (39mm).

More: Business Times