Late rains dampen northern farmers� hopes
Pini Bothoko | Friday December 18, 2015 15:18
FRANCISTOWN: The Department of Meteorological Services’ (DMS) warnings are coming horribly true for farmers here, as poor rains frustrate hopes for a robust start to the cropping season.
On October 1, the department announced that it expected the country to suffer the worst drought it has experienced in 34 years, this year, due to the effects of El-Nino weather phenomenon.
The areas harshest hit, Met Services said, would be the south, but the north was also warned of below normal rainfall for the 2015-2016 season. And the projections are coming true in the fields of the North East district. Recently, DMS warned the public about heatwaves hence very little is expected this ploughing season as poor rains frustrate farmers and delay ploughing.
Hoping against hope, farmers were excited about the season and looking forward to the range of government support initiatives traditionally rolled out under the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD). These are the months during which farmers who rely on rainfall in this area expected to have started ploughing and usually, by this time, crops would have started germinating with farmers busy removing weeds.
Instead, only a handful of farmers in the district began ploughing two weeks ago when the first rains fell. North East District Agricultural Coordinator, Nkaingwa Joel says the late rainfall has delayed cropping activities this season.
“Only a few ploughed with the first recent rains, but hopefully if it rains again, those who have registered to plough will do so,” Joel explains, adding that farmers have been encouraged to plant early maturing crops as soon as the rains return instead of maize.
For several years now, government has been urging farmers to reduce their hectarage under maize and opt for crops such as sorghum, which are early maturing and hardier in drought conditions.
The advice has largely fallen on deaf ears due to farmers’ eternal optimism and the resistance to change that comes with decades of experience on the fields.
“The situation this year is most depressing, especially since we received poor rains last year and could not plough to our usual standards,” says Mpaphi Phumaphi, a fodder production farmer at Chadibe village.
“For example my brother and I managed to have only ploughed 11 hectares as compared to 35 hectares last year.”
This year, Phumaphi and his brother have, to an extent, heeded the advice from government agricultural officers. The pair has ploughed five hectares of lab-lab (stockfeed), another five hectares of maize and a hectare of ground nuts, ditloo and water melons.
“Despite being advised not to plant maize by agricultural demonstrators as it needs too much water I just decided to go ahead and hopefully it will rain again. I am quite aware that if it does not rain, I will definitely not reap anything at all, but this was a risk I had to take.”
According to Phumaphi the situation in the fields has been worsening every year, as he recalls that in 2013 he managed to plough 60 hectares of lab-lab, before this declined to 35 in 2014 and this year’s five.
“A number of issues are conspiring against us this year. Firstly there was the issue of very poor rains but not only that, they came too late and delayed us from ploughing.
“Following the warning from DMS that rains would be scarce this season, farmers are afraid they will waste their money ploughing too many hectares.”
In Borolong village, Dingongorego Charles had to innovate around the poor rains. Realising that he would not be able to plough on time, he used the first rains to plant two hectares of beans, sweet reeds and watermelons.
Charles hopes the rain continues so that he plants more hectares.
“Yes we have heard that there will be little rain, as indeed we can already see, but that should not stop us from planting and hoping that God will soon give us rain.”
Kesentseng Sibanda, a popular farmer in Borolong, said 2015 is a bad year as she is yet to begin ploughing due to the rains.
“I have not started ploughing yet because the fields are dry. There are no rains this year, but if they do come, I will consider ploughing early maturing varieties like beans. I am very disappointed because usually this time of the year, the crops would be at seedling stage.”