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Zimbabwe is expected to receive normal rains during the 2017/2018 cropping season and the country is therefore likely to record another bumper harvest. Farmers should start to prepare for planting so that they plant with the early rains.

The Meteorological Services Department (MSD) said if the rainy season pans out as envisaged, it will be a boon for local farmers, particularly if they get the necessary support. The new report has allayed fears generated by the Sadc Climate Services Committee report which stated that Zimbabwe could be blighted by a two-pronged season characterised by drought and floods which is expected to affect the region.

Presenting the 2017/2018 forecast recently, MSD senior forecaster, Mrs Lucy Mots, said the region is expected to receive normal rains with a bias towards above normal rains during the first half of the rainy season (October to December).

She said the southern part of the country which is region two and three, will receive normal rains with a bias towards below normal rainfall. The whole country will however receive normal to above normal rains between December and March.

Farmers should be ready to start planting mid-November when reliable rains are expected. Government’s inputs support scheme through both the Command Agriculture and the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme contributed immensely to last season’s bumper harvest of about 4 million tonnes of food crops.

Government has already announced that it is again assisting farmers through the two schemes this coming cropping season and has already mobilised $600 million. A total of $154 million will fund the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme while $487 million will be spent on Command Agriculture so that more families benefit from the two programmes.

The challenge to farmers is to adequately prepare so that the country can record another bumper harvest.

We have said in the past that inputs should be delivered early so that farmers can plant with the early rains. What is encouraging is that Government has been able to moblise the required funding on time and work to source the required inputs should have started long back.

The inputs should be delivered to farmers before November as most of them should start planting mid-  November. This year we should avoid running out of inputs like what happened last season when farmers ran out of Ammonium Nitrate at a time it was needed most and this obviously reduced yields. In the event of another bumper harvest, the country will be able to export some of the produce to neighbouring countries.