Zimbabwe: Tobacco Farmers Urged to Plant Crop

Source from:  All Africa 11/19/2010

Dryland tobacco farmers have been urged to take advantage of current rains to plant their crop for a quick establishment. Divisional co-ordinator for field services at the Tobacco Research Board, Mr Ezekia Svotwa said planting of the irrigated crop started on the first of September. He said when water planting, farmers should apply enough water to ensure a link with subsoil moisture. For rain planting, Mr Svotwa advised this to commence in areas that had received 20mm and above of rainfall. "In a fast-growing area like the Odzi Valley, this crop is now very close to reaping while in medium to slow-growing areas, the crop is now at topping stage," he said. Mr Svotwa said late preparations resulted in poor quality crops. In the first week of November, 17 808 hectares of tobacco had been planted across the country, with irrigated tobacco accounting for 13 037 and dry land the remainder. Mashonaland West province has the highest hectarage (6 735) followed by Mashonaland East (5 999), while Masvingo has just 5ha. The hectarage of dryland tobacco is set to balloon with the setting in of the rainy season, as most farmers had been reluctant to plant for fear of putting the crop to waste after failing to get adequate water to sustain it. Enditem