Temo Letlotlo roars on but uncertainty clouds the fields
Mbongeni Mguni | Monday February 5, 2024 06:00
Temo Letlotlo, which focuses on farmers’ output, has been hailed as a transformative intervention for a sector whose contribution to the national economy has hovered below five percent over the decades.
ISPAAD, the old agriculture inputs programme, ate up an average of P600 million each year during its 15-year run, but only achieved outputs averaging just 47% of the financial input by government.
Both programme involve the provision of inputs such as seeds, fertilisers, herbicides, tillage and others. They however differ on the criteria for enrolment in the programme and the expected outcomes from the support.
On Thursday evening, Agriculture ministry officials said the new programme was steaming ahead with 120,000 farmers registered onto the Temo Crop Management System.
“A total of 32,660 farmers have been issued with e-vouchers valued at P300million covering 108, 284 hectares and are currently buying seeds and tillage services,” officials said in an emailed response to Mmegi’s enquiries.
However, the new support programme’s take-off has been soured by the late onset of rains countrywide, which has resulted in many farmers switching the crops they intended to plant, reducing their hectarage or abandoning the fields this season.
In September, the Meteorological Services Department projected that the dreaded El Nino phenomenon would return this season, bringing long dry spells, low and sporadic rainfall as well as frequent heatwaves.
Agriculture ministry official said the official onset of rains for most of the country was recorded in late December. Traditionally, farmers hope for the onset of rains to occur in November, allow long maturing crops such as maize, the time to grow and reach maturity before the early frost of April.
The officials conceded that yields from the season were likely to be low.
“According to the Department of Meteorological Services forecast released in October 2023 about the rain forecast for 2023-24 rainfall season, it was anticipated the season will be a normal to below normal season characterised with above normal high temperatures,” the officials told Mmegi. “It is therefore anticipated that the area ploughed/planted will be low which will ultimately result in low production and yield.”
The Ministry has advised farmers to plant crops such as sorghum, millet and legumes as they are drought tolerant.
“They are also encouraged to plant early maturing varieties especially maize crops because they are heavy feeders and susceptible to high temperatures. “Furthermore they are encouraged to practice conservation agricultural techniques such as ripping, minimum tillage and growing of cover crops,” the officials said.
Meanwhile, some areas of the country have been receiving occasional rains since the New Year, defying a dire forecast from the Met Services for the January to April period. In a seasonal update in late December, the Department warned that hot and dry conditions, with below-normal rainfall, more frequent dry spells and heatwaves, were expected to persist over the country in the second half of the season which runs from January to April.
Farmers who spoke to Mmegi, particularly in the North East, said the spells of rain seen this year had helped the growth of various legumes and hardier crops that many are opting for as opposed to maize.
The familiar mid-season dry spell, which has been occurring in January in recent years and withering up young crops, appears to not have occurred so far, raising hopes that the alternative crops could yield a healthy harvest.
However, a report released by the World Food Programme this week cautioned that the situation over most of the country points to low harvests.
“The combined observation and forecast shows that by end of January most of the region will have received below average rainfall overall, in particular Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and southern Madagascar,” the report reads. “Malawi and Zambia also appear to have been affected. “Rainfall deficits were particularly extreme so far in parts of Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.”
The WFP researchers said the balance of the season would reflect the El Niño pattern of below-average rainfall and above average temperatures for most of the region, which is likely to lead to below-average harvests and reduced stocks before the next season.