By Dr Michelina Andreucci
WITH the rains upon us, wild flowers spring into life in the Zimbabwean veld yet, command floriculture is yet to be explored in this country.
A discipline of horticulture, floriculture, also known as flower farming, is the cultivation of flowering and...
By Dr Michelina Andreucci
ALTHOUGH in many ways, 21st Century farmers are not very different from the farmers who preceded them; they are hardworking, independent caretakers of land and animals at the mercy of the weather.
Successful farming in the 21st Century, however, requires knowledge not...
Let us remain resolute
THE year has begun on a sad note.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to rear its ugly head and claiming lives across the world.
Sadly, as a country, we have not been spared.
In recent days we have lost a number of our citizens and...
We must be responsible
THE spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths is worrying to say the least.
In one way or another, everyone in this country is being affected by the scourge.
People are losing relatives, colleagues and friends everyday.
The virus is eating us away, but what...
THE coming of the rains this 2020-2021 season, despite the renewed damper of the COVID-19 threat, has brought relief and joy to most; especially to farmers throughout Zimbabwe.
However, this euphoria can be short-lived for livestock farmers, in particular, who may continue lose their...
By Emmanuel Koro in Johannesburg, South Africa.
ONE of the most curious and harmful lessons that Western animal rights groups continue to teach African rural communities co-existing with wildlife and the African public, in general, is: “Demand the arrest of chicken thieves and not wildlife...
First published in The Patriot of December 20 2018
THE Roman (Gregorian) solar calendar is not compatible with the times and seasons of the southern hemisphere.
December is considered the end of the year in the north because it is the month in which the winter...
THE aim of this farming column, during the past five years, has been to serve as a guide, critic, monitor and information hub in an attempt to inform and transform Zimbabwe’s outmoded farming practices and enhance the role of the agricultural producer in the...
CITRUS plantations have been established in Zimbabwe since the 1920s.
In March 1922, the citrus estates of Zimbabwe averaged 254 600 acres in total, excluding numerous smaller horticultural entities that also grew oranges.
The largest of these estates were Sinoia (Chinhoyi) Citrus Estates (86...
ZIMBABWE boasts several indigenous peanut strains that have been grown in the country since the late Iron Age.
It was during this sedentary period in pre-history that the terrigenous Zimbabweans ceased to be nomadic and settled on vast tracts of land, where they began to...
TOBACCO was grown extensively in Zimbabwe prior to the arrival of the white settlers in the early 19th Century.
In fact, in 1510, pre-colonial history records the first Portuguese trader to visit the Munhumutapa Empire, Antonio Fernandes, seeing indigenous Shona peoples rolling, sniffing, smoking...
FREE-RANGE chickens, referred to as ‘bosveldt’ chickens in southern Africa, have become all the rage in organic indigenous restaurants throughout the region.
In Zimbabwe they are colloquially referred to as ‘road-runners’ and are a drought-tolerant and disease resistant breed of chickens.
Appearing in San archaeozoology...
