A number of farmers have expressed hope that this year’s harvest is predicted to be a good one and would see an increase in food crop production situation they excited about.
The farmers spoken to have said a number of factors can be attributed to the windfall such as government’s intervention by providing subsidized farm inputs such as fertilizers, weedicides and other agrochemicals.
It was noted that professional intervention by agriculture extension officers through the Department of Agriculture also played an important part.
Practices such as group farming, access to micro credit and the services of some Non Governmental Organisations was helpful.
Some of the farmers however, expressed misgivings about timing of the distribution of farm inputs and that the process in some cases was not transparent and fair advocating that in future the process should be spearheaded by the farmers themselves and not left to assembly members, opinion leaders and politicians.
Some other concerns raised were post harvest loses, pricing of farm produce and availability of ready market at the appropriate time supported by the relevant authorities.
There was a general call for an improvement of the situation in the coming cropping season with some employing on government to improve expand on dry season farming because they have heard various radio station discussions on it.
