Southern Province Minister, Elijah Muchima has said farming would continue improving the socio-economic status of people despite poor rainfall patterns in some parts of region.
Mr Muchima said Southern Province is historically a great contributor to the country’s grain basket and noted that a number of maize bags that contributed to the 2.8 million tonnes Bumper Harvest came from the Province.
He said farmers had realised the importance of agriculture as a business venture owing to the incentives that Government had put into the Agriculture sector.
The Minister was speaking in an nterview with ZANIS at Cabinet Office yesterday.
‘’However some parts of the Province are not likely to benefit from agriculture due to the poor rainfall pattern that these areas experience,’’ he said,
Notable places with poor rainfall patterns are Livingstone,Sinazongwe,and some parts of Zimba.
The maximum annual rainfall in these areas is about 800mm and the altitude is 24cm above sea level.
And Livingstone District Agriculture and Coordinator (DACO),Tundu Kaonga advised farmers in places around Zambezi valley where rainfall was erratic to practice conservation farming as a an alternative.
Mr.Kaonga said Conservation farming reduced moisture evaporation from the soil surface and lessened water run-off.
The DACO said the long term benefits of conservation farming included stable crop yield.
Mr.Kaonga said this during at interview at his office recently.
Meanwhile, Livingstone farmers Cooperative Chairperson Rwinnick Mapanza urged his fellow farmers to seek professional advice on new farming methods.
He said some farmers did not cooperate with Extension Officers who could offer them good farming techniques.
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