Zim will have good harvests if rains continue, say...

Zim will have good harvests if rains continue, says WFP

Zm Now Writer

Zimbabwe is likely to have good harvests this farming season if the rains received so far continue, a report of the World Food Programme says.

The WFP report titled Food Security and Markets Monitoring, the United Nations (UN) arm said farming operation shad started in earnest around the country, with land preparation and planting already underway.

“If the rainfall season proceeds according to the national outlook with temporal and geographical distribution of the rains and equitable access to inputs being good, prospects of a good harvest are likely to be high,” the WFP report read.

The Zimbabwe Meteorological Services Department (MSD) has already announced that there were high chances of normal to above normal rainfall from October to December 2022, with the weather forecaster’s first bulletin saying most parts of the country received rainfall ranging between 10 and 80mm with a few patches receiving above that.

“The possibility of a normal to above-normal rainfall season is likely to improve harvest prospects with all other factors being equal. Government has put in place measures to increase access to cropping inputs and also to stabilise their cost such as fuel and fertilisers, and this is likely to improve access by vulnerable households.”

There had been fears that millions of people faced hunger owing to the devastating impact of climate change that has caused floods and cyclones, as well as droughts worldwide.

Earlier this year, United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) representative Tajudeen Oyewale said that climate change would cause average temperatures to rise by about 3°C before the end of this century, with annual rainfall declining by between 5 percent and 18 percent, especially in the south, thereby affecting the country’s food security, health, energy supply and the economy.”

Agriculture deputy minister Vangelis Haritatos said recently that the country was food secure, adding that government had put strategies in place to avert hunger.