{"id":1723,"date":"2021-04-13T15:33:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T15:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=1723"},"modified":"2021-04-13T16:00:55","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T16:00:55","slug":"conservation-farming-proves-a-game-changer-in-zimbabwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=1723","title":{"rendered":"Conservation Farming Proves A Game Changer In Zimbabwe"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Enos Denhere\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe \u2014\u00a0An agriculture\u00a0conservation<\/a>\u00a0practice initiated for farmers in\u00a0Zimbabwe<\/a>\u00a0is bearing fruit.<\/p>\n

The program, known in the country as\u00a0Pfumvudza<\/a>, trains farmers in the use of small plots that retain water easily and are easier to maintain than larger plots. The goal is to bring food security to Zimbabwean families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe secret to the project\u2019s success has been its scalability,\u201d said Engelbert Chenjera, an urban small-scale farmer. \u201cConservation agriculture<\/a>\u00a0drastically reduces the workload for farmers and limits the size of plots, making it even more manageable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a beneficiary of the government\u2019s\u00a0Presidential Inputs Scheme<\/a> and also from the private sector \u2014 Mukushi Seeds company. I planted sunflower, beans, maize, and sweet potatoes, and I am looking forward to having a good yield.\u00a0 You can\u2019t compare the current crop production with previous years. This year, we were fully supported, and it\u2019s a bumper harvest,\u2019\u2019 said Chenjera.<\/p>\n

During 2010-2013, support for the Presidential Inputs Scheme \u201cwas mobilized to develop small-scale agro-dealers by recapitalizing their input and grain marketing in rural areas, and voucher and e-voucher mechanisms were piloted and partially scaled up to target small farmers,\u201d states a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by the World Bank.<\/p>\n

The government introduced Pfumvudza for the 2020-2021 cropping season to address low levels of farm production.<\/p>\n

The initiative helps farmers produce greater yields of grains, mainly maize, sorghum, and millet, while it reduces farmers\u2019 workload.<\/p>\n

After several years of poor rainfall seasons, this year the government partnered with the private sector, including Seedco and Mukushi, to roll out the Pfumudza concept nationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently doing a crop and livestock assessment exercise to come up with yields (metric tonnes per hectare) and production (tonnes) countrywide,\u201d said\u00a0Ministry of Agriculture<\/a>\u00a0principal agronomist Davison Masendeke.<\/p>\n

Challenges in the past year<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom is meaningless if people cannot put food in their stomachs,\u201d African icon Nelson Mandela once said. This year, intensive rains, coupled with COVID-19 restrictions, contributed to the challenges small-scale urban farmers face.<\/p>\n

Erasmus Moyo, a small-scale farmer in Bulawayo, said his area is prone to drought, but as a result of too much rainfall this year, he had to plant maize, sorghum, and beans on his small plots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of us benefited from the Pfumvudza inputs program here in urban areas,\u201d he said. \u2018\u2019I had to adhere to minimum soil disturbance techniques. I would only dig a hole where I would plant seeds and leave the rest of the land undisturbed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept really paid dividends, and the issue of food shortage is now a thing of the past to my family,\u201d said Moyo.<\/p>\n

The Pfumvudza concept is meant to benefit all farmers in Zimbabwe. The aim is to grow yields at the household level, as this directly impacts the national yield level, which presently sits at between 0.5 tonnes per hectare to 0.9 tonnes per hectare. With exceptional genetics on the market, there is the ability to reach well above 10 tonnes per hectare.<\/p>\n

Another farmer, Benson Ncube, said: \u201cWherever you go, it is promising a bumper harvest and seems a game-changer in the area of food security.\u201d The Pfumvudza program helps farmers like Ncube save time, land, and money by reducing input and labor.<\/p>\n

More than 8 million people in Zimbabwe were facing food shortages for several years, due to drought and cyclones linked to climate change and worsened by economic setbacks.<\/p>\n

Many farmers who implemented the Pfumvudza concept are enjoying productive harvests. The country\u2019s annual maize consumption was between 1.8 million tonnes and 2 million tonnes; therefore, the country had to import at least 1 million tonnes of maize in order to meet the local supply requirements every year.<\/p>\n

In 2020, it was reported that Zimbabwe\u2019s maize (corn) imports were at an 11-year high\u00a0due to drought<\/a>\u00a0in the country.<\/p>\n

Source: Zenger News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Enos Denhere\u00a0 BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe \u2014\u00a0An agriculture\u00a0conservation\u00a0practice initiated for farmers in\u00a0Zimbabwe\u00a0is bearing fruit. The program, known in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-express","category-breaking-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1725,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions\/1725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}