Government restricts potato imports

Government has imposed restrictions on the importation of potatoes following an outbreak of the pepper ringspot virus in neighbouring South Africa.

Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary, Professor Obert Jiri, told New Ziana in an interview on Friday that Zimbabwe was on high alert to prevent the disease spreading into the country as can adversely impact potato production in the country.

“We are therefore as government taking measures and ensure that we don’t risk our potato growers and our farmers in the country in general. We will restrict from now the importation of potato so that we protect our farmers from that ring pepper virus,” he said.

“This is important that all importers of potatoes comply with this directive during this period as we do further assessment. We are sending our teams to South Africa to have a closer look at the situation there; we will continue to monitor the situation as a country but also as a region to ensure that our farmers are protected and the pest is restricted to where it started.”

Seed potato dominates the importation of potatoes into the country and Prof Jiri said it can now only be imported when it has been cleared to be free of the virus.

He said currently Zimbabwe is working on protocols to see how the pest can be identified.

“We will definitely restrict potato seed importation, will also monitor the situation so that we will see whether the potato that we have for eating and processing are in that category,” said Jiri.

“We will be comprehensive to ensure that there is no much risks to our potato growers. We understand that sometimes people use any potato to regenerate which we are aware of and we will make sure that that doesn’t happen.”

Meanwhile, Jiri said most areas have received normal to above normal rains so far, adding that the farming season was conforming to the meaning of El Nino by being short and sharp.

He said farmers across the country should continue to plant various crops like early maturing maize grains even if the recorded anticipated rainfall have been surpassed.

“At the moment farmers are busy now looking after the crops so agronomic practices are in full swing, fertilisers’ application, weed control, and pest management are the things the farmers are doing and if we keep at that pace we should be able to get good crops out there,” he said.

“The Meteorological department predicted that we will be able to receive these rains, clearing off by the end of February which is why we were encouraging our farmers to grow short season varieties which most farmers have taken heed of.”

He said farmers should continue planting traditional grains in every piece of land they have to ensure that the country will be able to get enough food production than was anticipated when El Niño was first predicted.

“We are still in the process of on boarding sorghum farmers, so far we have 44 000 ha that have been planted to sorghum and also partly maize and that process continues because after the on boarding farmers will then collect their inputs and plant,” he said, expressing hope that the

100 000ha targeted for the drought resistant crop would be achieved.

“Following the rains, crops are looking fantastic and for those that planted a little early, those crops are looking quite good. Crop situation at the moment looks very good and if the rains continue with these sun breaks that are there we should see good growth rate and good yield come the end of this short and sharp season.” – New Ziana