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Although the season is at an advanced stage, some farmers in the province are still to plant amid calls by agriculture experts for them to start planting early maturing varieties.

In some areas with high temperatures such as Hurungwe District, the early planted maize crop is already at the tasselling stage.
However, concern has been raised over the sporadic nature of rainfall patterns where the distribution was patchy with some areas such as Sanyati being dry.

In an interview yesterday, Agritex agronomist Mrs Siyena Makaza, said the area planted under maize so far was bigger than last season.
“Most farmers have planted their maize and we expect more from our farmers this season than the last one. We are still monitoring the situation and we also expect that our yield per hectare will also rise,” she said.
She said the province expected to have about 280 000 hectares under maize compared to 260 000 last season.

However, she called on the farmers to aim for high yields per hectare.
The province had an average yield per hectare of 1,4 tonnes and there is a drive to increase it.
If current weather conditions continued, she said the province was on course to surpass last year’s achievements.

Turning to tobacco, Mrs Makaza said reaping and curing was progressing well but farmers expressed concern at the erratic supply of electricity.
“Reaping and curing of the irrigated crop is in progress and it is progressing well. The overall quality of the crop is good,” she said.
The province has about 21 000 hectares under tobacco with about 40 percent of that being under irrigation.-The Herald