 Farmers in Zimbabwe have ploughed and planted less than a quarter of the targeted agricultural land, raising fears of food shortages next year, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made has announced. Quoting Made, state radio Sunday said that "due to the shortage of tillage equipment, farmers have planted crops on 977,694 hectares (2.4 million acres) this season, compared to the anticipated four million hectares". The minister added that "no one can assess the impact of what the 977,694 hectares planted so far -- instead of the targetted four million hectares -- will have on the output of maize (staple grain) as it is in the middle of the agricultural season." A senior official in the agriculture ministry, Shadreck Mlambo, last week warned that "time is running out".
| While let's see, 1 million out of 4 million is about, oh (carry the seven, plus the square root of 48, minus two toes ...) 25% of the land is planted. Therefore I surmise, using my keen powers of observation and foruth grade math, that they'll have at most 25% of the maize. At most because there are plenty of ways for them to reduce the yield between now and harvest-time. That wasn't so hard, was it? |
Made told ZIANA state news agency at the weekend that the country needed at least 50,000 tractors to meet its agricultural requirements. A team of engineers and officials left on Christmas Day for Iran which has offered to help Zimbabwe set up a tractor manufacturing plant. Fewer than half of the 733 tractors in the country are currently operational due to shortages of spares. Made urged farmers to use animal-drawn ploughs as tractors are in short supply and said farmers should not adhere to the traditional strict planting days as the rainfall season has "slightly changed". |