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Lovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
SEED manufacturer, Seedco, has introduced a new early maturity seed maize variety on the market aimed at countering the effects of climate change.

The introduction of the new seed variety comes on the background of revelations by the Meteorological Services Department that the summer cropping season has contracted with farmers now being advised to plant crops that mature early.

Seedco sales agronomist, Social Shava, told Business Chronicle the new seed variety — SC301 matures after 60 days making it ideal for areas which have erratic rainfall patterns.

“We’ve realised there are places which are not receiving as much rainfall as they used to receive in the past and Seedco has come up with a new variety, which is an ultra early maturing variety. SC301 will take around two and half months to mature but in some areas it has taken two months to mature,” he said.

He said the new seed variety will be available on the market this summer cropping season and is ideal in areas which lie in natural region 5 where below normal rainfall is received.

University of Zimbabwe lecturer in the Geography and Environmental Science Department, Professor Amon Murwira, said the country needs to audit its cropping and livestock sub systems and find out how the effects of climate change might impact on the production systems.

Prof Murwira said the country was not yet ready to combat the effects of climate change hence the incidence of recurrent droughts, which have been dogging the country in the past decade.

The state of affairs, Prof Murwira said, was a threat to the country’s food security. He said there was a need for the country to harness surface water through the construction of dams that will ensure food security through irrigation.