Armyworm |
Government has
secured knapsack sprayers that will be distributed to smallholder
farmers in an attempt to fight the risk which might be caused by the
fall armyworm this season.
This development comes after chiefs told
President Mugabe when he attended their annual meeting in Bulawayo last
week that their subjects almost lost their crop to the pest last season.
The traditional leaders also said they wanted the District Development
Fund to be revamped so that it could continue to offer tillage services
to communal farmers. Others also requested inputs under the Presidential
Well-Wishers Free Inputs Scheme for their Zunde RaMambo plots.
Agriculture,
Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made said on
Tuesday that his ministry was working round the clock to have the
chiefs' requests addressed before the farming season started. He said
the first victory in the fight against fall armyworm was the help
received from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, which would see
many smallholder farmers receiving knapsack sprays to fight the pest.
"The chiefs raised
the question of the fall armyworm as to what we were doing as Government
in order to fight this dangerous pest. We will continue to have the
National Spraying Team on standby, but we must also capacitate the
farmers. Poorly capacitated farmers risk losing much of their crop to
fall armyworm, especially in the event that the national spraying team
delays in responding," said Dr Made.
Dr Made said extension workers should be out on the fields teaching farmers on how to scout the pest.
"Our primary focus
now is capacitating the farmer on fighting this pest. We need to remain
alert, the chiefs were specific on fall armyworm. We need to train our
farmers on when to spray, how to spray, how to scout so that it doesn't
develop resistance. We want extension officers to be with the farmers.
They must spend 75 percent of their time on the field helping farmers.
We can't give the farmer an extra task of imagining what good
agric-practices are. They have a huge task of planting, weeding,
harvesting and then delivering the grain to GMB," he said.
Dr Made said they were busy looking at ways at which services which were offered by DDF could be restored.
"So, smallholder
farmers will get knapsack sprayers, but not all of them, which
Government and FAO acquired for pest and disease management. We will
make sure that the chiefs get inputs for their Zunde RaMambo plots,
while we are waiting for DDF to be back on the ground to offer its much
needed tillage services to the small scale farmers," he said.
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