Small grains hectarage overtakes maize in Mash Central

Bindura (New Ziana) -The area of land under small grains in Mashonaland Central province was larger this year than that for maize, a recent provincial crop and livestock assessment has found.

Agricultural Research and Extension Services provincial extension officer Stanslae Tapererwa attributed the increase to the dry spells that the province experienced between December last year and January this year which saw some farmers replanting maize.

“It also shows that farmers in the province listened to the advice they were getting from extension workers mainly in border districts where they were encouraged to go for small grains due to the rainfall pattern in those areas,” he said.

“Farmers lost seed due to replanting maize. However, they did not experience the same with groundnuts, sorghum, pearl and finger-millet,” he added.

According to the crop assessment which the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement carried out, the area under maize dropped by 4 percent from 211 176 hectares last year to 202 293 hectares this year while soya beans dropped by 23 percent from 19 281 to 15 750 hectares.

On the other hand, the area under resilient crops increased, namely groundnuts which saw an 8 percent rise from 21 646 ha to 23 327 ha, sorghum 61 percent from 32 238 ha to 51 936 ha, pearl millet 56 percent from 1 993 ha to 3 111 ha and finger millet by 126 percent from 1 310 ha to 2 956 ha.

New Ziana