Rain delivers handsome bounty at masimo

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Friday February 15, 2008 00:00

That is, if the excitement at the Ministry of Agriculture and countryside folk, where farmers are currently chasing away sparrows and hoeing weeds, can be used as a yardstick.

A senior official at the ministry says he has espied up to 10 trucks groaning with loads of sweet reed and green maize cobs at the Gaborone bus rank.

In Francistown maize cobs and sweet reed are making a heavy and welcome presence at marketplaces among vegetables, chappies, cigarettes, and Mascom's 'Nzamela' or top up airtime, which is always sold at the bus rank.

'This is certainly going to be a good year for the country. We expect very good harvests of maize meal, sorghum and millet. The downside is that we may not see much of pumpkins and watermelons because of the heavy downpours,' says the official.

Maize is a consummate guzzler of water, and when it is healthiest the leaves assume a dark green colour that beautifies its surrounding. So, to some extent sorghum and millet flourish quite well in wet conditions.

But the same cannot be said about pumpkins and watermelons, which are seriously scarce. Their leaves become submerged in water and these crops die in their embryonic stages from suffocation under water or being soaked for too long.

Out in the countryside, Sekale Senamela, 44, is a picture of anticipation as she views her expanse of green crops on the outskirts of Mathangwane.

'I have never have it so good in a long time. This looks like it is going to be a good year for me,' says the mother of three, with her sister, Montshwari Senamela who last week spoke about her insecurity at the lands in an interview with Monitor.

The greenery before our eyes in Senamela's masimo is maize, sorghum, millet and sweet reed, beans and groundnuts. She had also planted pumpkins and watermelons, but due to the problems mentioned above, she is not anticipating any good returns from these kinds of crops.

'I had planted the watermelons and pumpkins earlier because I foresaw that there would be heavy rains this year. But the rains came much earlier and by the time these crops started to flower, it was raining almost every day,' she said ruefully.

The ministry official trumpeted the message calling on farmers to roll up their sleeves and weed their crops. The farmers must also chase away birds, as they have prove, time and again, to be unwanted guests.

'If they do not do these things, we may as well forget about bountiful harvests. What you have to realise is that weeds grow faster than the crops and if not checked, they quickly overwhelm them,' he warned.Senamela says she puts scarecrows at strategic places around her field and they have proved effective in keeping the birds at bay.