SEVENTY-FIVE-year-old Faith Munyati of Buhera under Chief Maburutse could not hide her joy as she inspected her maize crop that has reached the tasseling stage.
For the past five seasons, her crop has not reached this stage as it had wilted while it was still at knee-height level due to the erratic rains the area had been receiving.
Munyati, a former high school teacher is a communal farmer who owns a 10-hectare plot where she produces maize, groundnuts, sugar beans and cowpeas.
Munyati and other villagers’ crops in Buhera have not only been affected by the lack of adequate rains, but also by the lack of funds to purchase Ammonium Nitrate fertilisers.
Buhera falls under Natural Region Four which is characterised by an annual rainfall of 450-650 millimetres, severe dry spells during the rain season and frequent seasonal droughts.
The region is considered unsuitable for dry land cropping; smallholder farmers grow drought-tolerant varieties of maize, sorghum, pearl millet (mhunga) and finger millet (rapoko).
The past seasons for most parts of Manicaland, Masvingo, Matabeleland and Bulawayo have not been as successful as the areas did not receive sufficient rains.
Farmers have not been deterred by the challenges as every year they have continued to plough and plant hoping for a good season.
This season, the perseverance of the farmers promises to pay off as most parts of the provinces have been receiving consistent rains.
This week, The Patriot toured some parts of Manicaland, Mashonaland East and Masvingo to assess the state of crops.
Farmers in Buhera, Gutu, Chivhu and Chikomba contend that if they continue to receive rains they are headed for a bumper season.
An ecstatic Munyati is optimistic this season would be a success as the ‘heavens have opened up’ and the crops in villages making up Buhera are green and looking lively, a sharp contrast from the last season.
“This year I was almost giving up on farming since in the past seasons I had wasted seeds as most of the plants wilted and in the end I did not get the desired yields,” said Munyati.
“As someone with a passion for farming, I just decided to go ahead and plant.
“I even increased my hectarage from three to six hectares and it seems my efforts will not be going to waste.
“For the first time in five years we have received consistent rains and if the rains continue, we are likely to get a better yield than in the past five seasons.”
This season, Munyati has four hectares under maize, one hectare under groundnuts and one hectare of cowpeas and sugar beans.
“I also practise animal husbandry and I have a herd of 23 cattle and 15 sheep,” she said.
“The erratic rains were not only having a negative effect on our crops but also on our animals we were experiencing a shortage of pastures and water for them.”
Another farmer Herbert Chenjerai from Muzembe Village in Buhera who has three hectares under maize was confident that his crop would produce a favourable yield.
“It has been a while since we have been able to harvest a satisfactory yield as the poor rains have been affecting us,” Chenjerai said.
“We normally get rains in November and thereafter there is a mid-season drought which can stretch up to mid-February and the crops end up wilting.
“This season we were surprised we have received rains for almost three weeks now in January and this is a good sign as our crops are doing well and if it continues to rain we are poised for a bumper harvest.”
Small-scale farmer, Ephraim Runganga from Gutu, said the province was poised for a successful agricultural season.
Gutu falls under Natural Region Five characterised by an annual rainfall of less than 650 mm and rains are highly erratic.
Runganga owns a 120 hectare farm where he produces maize, sunflowers, sugar beans, sorghum and round nuts.
“The past seasons have been difficult for us as despite our efforts to plant we did not receive adequate rains and in the end we got poor harvests,” he said.
“This season we are definitely headed for a successful season if it continues to rain.
“Most farmers had now switched to growing small grains as advised by extension officers and those that planted maize will not lose out as the rains have continued to fall.”
Agriculture has remained the key sector of the economy.
Under the Land Reform Programme more than 400 000 households benefitted and since then indigenous Zimbabweans have been the drivers of the sector.
Despite efforts by the West to sabotage the programme, resettled farmers have remained resilient.
Government had in the past been the major supporter of resettled farmers since 2008.
The finance ministry then headed by Tendai Biti from the MDC-T party was deliberately underfunding agriculture in a bid to further the Western agenda.
By not funding the sector, resettled farmers failed to maximize production and the West was given basis to discredit resettled farmers and call for the return of former white commercial farmers.
In the past decade, the performance of the agriculture sector has remained depressed owing to recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall patterns and chiefly lack of adequate funding.
Thus in recent years production fell below the required levels.
Under the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-ASSET), Government has reaffirmed its support for the agricultural sector saying food security would be its major priority.