Lack of funding hinders wheat planting

The winter wheat planting deadline of May 15 has passed with few farmers having planted the crop. Most farmers failed to meet the planting deadline due to unavailability of funding.  Others have, however, shifted from wheat due to the high risk associated with the crop to other winter crops like
barley and potatoes. The barley is being grown under contract.
Agritex director Mr Joseph Gondo confirmed that farmers have started planting wheat in different parts of the country.
“Farmers have started planting wheat, especially those who have finished harvesting soyabeans. There is no Government funding and farmers are using their own resources,” he said.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union vice-president Mr Johnson Mapira said few farmers were planting wheat due to the absence of a funding facility.
“Most farmers who have planted have used their own resources while a few have managed to access loans from banks,” he said.
Mr Mapira said farmers in Glendale, Mazowe and Bindura have started planting the crop.
Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union second vice-president Mr Berean Mukwende said lack of funding has affected many farmers who had planned to grow the crop.-Herald

ZESA prepaid system create confusion

The Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) says the prepaid system introduced by ZESA has created confusion that has caused farmers to be sceptical about planting wheat in Umguza district this season.


The new billing system, which the farmers have not yet understood, has been launched in the district at a time most of them are trying to recover from the losses they incurred as a result of the drought experienced last year.

ZCFU spokesperson for Matabeleland North province, Mrs Shandu Gumede said it will be difficult for a high water demanding crop like wheat to be produced under circumstances where there are constant power cuts due to non-payment of bills, adding that less than 10 farmers in the province have expressed interest in producing wheat this season.

“The prepaid system that has just been introduced has made farmers very sceptical because what’s happening is that, most of them half way through irrigation, their allocation or units diminish so they are still trying to understand their budget, they are still trying to understand how it works,” Gumede said.

Matabeleland North Provincial Agritex Officer Dumisani Nyoni said farmers are yet to gain confidence in the new system following an incident that occurred at Redwood Communal Irrigation Scheme where 10 hectares of wheat nearing maturity had to be written off due to power cuts.

“Farmers are now sceptical as they fear that if they fail to make payments they will be switched off power, and those that have been connected they are yet to develop confidence and full knowledge on how much power they will need to support the wheat crop,” said Mr Nyoni.

During peak seasons, Matabeleland North province utilises 1 000 hectares for wheat production, but production levels have decreased with less than 200 hectares being put under the crop in the past two years.

Wheat also requires 500 kilogrammes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser and another 500 kilogramme of Compound D per hectare.

The farmers in Umguza have also had water challenges following disconnections by ZINWA for non-payment of bills.
ZBC

Tobacco class B buyers back

Tobacco farmers say Class B buyers have allegedly resurfaced at the tobacco auction floors, a move farmers say negatively affects the pricing of the crop.

The Class B buyers buy, re-handle and repackage tobacco that would have been rejected by Class A merchants and then re-sell it to the same at a higher price.
They were banned last season for allegedly pushing down tobacco prices.
According to The Herald, farmers, however, alleged that the Class B merchants were colluding with Class A merchants to reject the bulk of their tobacco so that they could buy it at low prices and re-sell it to Class A buyers at a higher price.
Tobacco growers say that the Class B buyers were this season not formally operating at the auction floors but were buying the crop from outside the floors.
The growers allege that auction floors were working together with the buyers and this had resulted in an increase in the number of bales being rejected at the floors.
Macheke farmer Mr Ben Hatitye said bales were being rejected for no apparent reason to force farmers to sell to the Class B buyers outside the floors to “at least get something out of the rejected crop”.
“We are being forced to sell to these buyers by the situation. In some cases the transporters who would have ferried us to the floors will be ready to go and one cannot be left behind to sell a few bales considering the process I have to go through with the re-handling, baling and selling,” he said.

source: Herald

New developments in agriculture- Good or bad

New developments in agriculture include factory farming and the creation of new fruits and vegetables. Many people believe, however, that huge industrial farms and genetically modified plants are dangerous and that we need to go back to smaller, more natural farming.

In the last 50 years, agriculture has become more and more mechanized and there have been many discoveries in genetic engineering. However, some people are worried about the effect of this on our health and our environment.

There is no doubt that we need more food. There are over 7 billion people now and there will be 10 billion in just a few decades. To feed these extra people we need more food. Another point is that this food has to come from less and less land. This means each hectare has to produce more food.

 A third point is that we need to reduce waste and inefficiency. Up to 30% of food is wasted on the farm, between the farm and the shop, or in the home. New methods to stop food from spoiling or to improve vitamin or other qualities will be good.

 Advocates say genetically modified (GM) foods allow farmers to produce more with fewer chemicals—which means a cleaner environment and cheaper groceries for us all. But the question remains: What impact do GM foods have on our health?

GM foods have been on the market only since 1994, and research on their long-term effects on humans is scarce. To date most of the studies have been done on animals; worryingly, though, some of those studies link GM foods to altered metabolism, inflammation, kidney and liver malfunction, and reduced fertility. In one experiment, multiple generations of hamsters were fed a diet of GM soy; by the third generation, they were losing the ability to produce offspring, producing about half as many pups as the non-GM soy group.

However, many of these developments in farming are dangerous. First of all, nobody knows what the effect of genetically modified organisms will be on our bodies. There has not been enough long-term testing to see the effects. A second point is that factory farming often causes disease or helps it to spread. We are feeding our animals unsuitable food and keeping them in bad conditions. This will affect the quality of our food. Finally, if agriculture is a business instead of a way of life, the farm owners will think only of quick profit, not long-term sustainability.

In conclusion, we need more food and more efficient farming, but we need to learn from mad cow disease and bird flu that nature does not like being forced to do things our way. -writefix