Zimbabwe: Farmers grow more traditional grains

The area planted under traditional crops this year has increased as farmers diversify to boost food and nutrition security. The increase in production of the traditional grains has also been promoted by the increase in demand producer prices. The Grain Marketing Board is offering a higher producer price of $70 263 per tonne for traditional grains compared to $58 553 per tonne. Some traditional crops are on the verge of extinction as smallholder farmers who used to be the major producers have turned to other high-value crops grown under contract farming. Production of traditional crops was financed through the Government Pfumvudza/ Intwasa programme, the private sector contracted and self-financed farmers. According to the Agritex weekly update, farmers had by last Friday planted 41 780 hectares of cowpeas, an increase of 17 percent from the 35 640 ha that had been planted during the same period last year. The hectarage of pearl millet has increased by five percent from 138 781 ...