Farmers across the country have been urged to take advantage of the remaining period of the rainy season to intensify planting of traditional grains to boost national food and nutrition security.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary Obert Jiri said the planting window was still open and farmers should utilise all the idle land they have to plant strategic crops.
Prof Jiri has been touring different provinces to assess the condition of crops.
“We are moving around provinces assessing the condition of crops and appreciating farmers for their role in ensuring national food security. As we are still in January, we still have the chance to plant traditional grains, such as sorghum, rapoko and millet.
“We should continue planting such crops, we encourage farmers to utilise any space they have to plant traditional grains so our area under cropping can improve and food production,” he said.
Prof Jiri said the remaining part of the season was adequate for crop development.
“The early-planted maize is now at the tasseling stage, while some farmers are now concentrating on applying top dressing.
“Those with traditional grains should move with speed and intensify planting. Let us continue planting, let us utile all the idle land for food production.
Prof Jiri advised farmers to scout for pest diseases as the current humid and warm conditions were conducive for diseases and pest outbreaks.
“We urge farmers to conduct scouting so they can identify pests early for timely interventions and reduce losses. There have been reports of the fall armyworm and sometimes we can see African armyworm or locusts.
“If identified early, control will come in early and the damage will be minimal. Rains also lead to weeds; we encourage our farmers to use herbicides during the dry times.
“Farmers should be careful when applying herbicides to ensure they are not washed by rain. Farmers can also control the weeds manually using hoes. Weeds compete with our crops for nutrients and moisture,” he said.
Traditional grains production (sorghum and millets) is forecast to increase from 634 650 tonnes to 797 000 tonnes by 2030, with the value of the crops expected to reach US$318,8 million during the review period.
The grains play a pivotal role in national food security, especially because of their higher nutritive value compared to maize.
The crops have also been popular for being tolerant to drought.
According to the Agriculture, Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy (AFSRTS) 2, traditional grains are the second most consumed cereals after maize.
“The traditional grain value chain contribution at inception of AFSRTS 2 will be 1,6 percent of total Agriculture Gross Value in 2025/26 and 2 percent in 2030/31 season,” the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development revealed in the AFSRTS 2 document.
With Government policy on agro-ecological tailoring of crops, traditional grains have become important summer crops alongside maize.-herald
