By Margaret Kamba 

We are already in the summer cropping season and many farmers have put measures in place to ensure the season goes smoothly. In this article, agricultural expert Irvin Craig not only shares tips on how proper planning helps the farmer achieve a good yield but adds that good eating habits can help boost the country's strategic grain reserves.

"We thank God the rains are upon us and we hope they will go as per prediction from our Met Department because the forecast is quite promising that the first part of the season will be average to average or average to normal, that is we are going to get enough to germinate and establish our crop and the second part is going to be average to above average of which that is the trend we would want to establish the crop and then more rains as the crops starts flowering, as the crop starts establishing fruits and they need the water as well as to fill up the fruit and up to physiological maturity, so this is exactly what we would want. 

To a farmer, you also have to play an important role in this case planning with a dry spell in mind. This is because as much as the Met Department has predicted a good season but anything can happen with the rains. They might be coming, but we might have prolonged dry spells in between, so in that case, as a farmer, you have to make sure that have done justice as you are planning to plant your crops and making a choice.

First and foremost is to know and understand your ecological region which when we are talking of ecological region 1, 2A, 2B, 3, 4, 5A, 5B it means all these ecological regions differ in the heat units, in the length of the season as well as the amount of water which falls onto the ground. Dear farmers soil type does not determine the performance of a crop. What determines the performance of a crop is the length of the season and the amount of water which goes in.

Of course soil plays an important role if there is enough organic matter in the soil and if your soil pH is correct that is what you need and then you can plant anything irrespective of your ecological region and still be in a position to harvest the maximum potential out of your crop and your ecological region.

What matters importantly here is making the right choice of the right crop and of the variety which matches your ecological region.

If you are in high potential areas, that is your ecological region 1, 2A and 2B and under irrigation, I stress the point under irrigation, irrigation irrespective of wherever you are as long as you have got enough water in your source you can plant any crop and still be in a position to get good yield. 

So in this case in those areas you can plant long season varieties, medium season varieties. You can also plant early maturing varieties of any crop. However this does not mean these crops are not stressed during dry spells, it is important just to make sure that mitigation measures are also considered in the planning. 

Ecological region 2B, the edges of 2B into 3, I would recommend you plant very early maturing crops and early maturing crops. These would be in a position to make sure that they mature within the length of the season as well as they have got some drought tolerance in them. 

The edges of ecological region 3 into 4, here we are recommending that you grow very early or ultra early and very early maturing and early maturing crops. If you are looking at other crops which are drought tolerant, please it is important even on the prior ecological regions, to consider drought tolerant crops. These are the millets, finger millet, pure millet, sorghum, cow peas, sunflower and cassava.

As we get back to the ecological regions let's look at the edges of 4 into 5A and 5B, these are referred to as marginal areas. These are cattle areas, game ranching areas but you find we have got a lot of farmers who are settled in those areas and would also like to so some cropping there. Here we are talking of drought tolerant crops and with good adaptability. We are looking at our traditional grains, and if you wish to grow maize, go for ultra early, and very early and early varieties.

However as you are choosing these crops it is not a matter of just being short season crop but also look at crops with drought tolerance and adaptability which should be in a position to escape dry spells should you experience any.

Farmers as you are planting all these crops which I have recommended, it is important to make sure that with all these crops, let's also combine mitigation measures. Mitigation measures start with soil. Our soil needs to be analyzed and the soil pH must be correct. This actually helps the development of the roots which goes deeper into the permanent wet zone and wider in search of moisture and nutrients for their survival.

We also have to carry out some operations like storm drain trenching, contour trenching as these will also help in harvesting all the water which falls.

Instead of driving it out of the field, it keeps it in the field. This applies to all the ecological regions from ecological region 1 right up to 5B. So once the water is collected, you find it seeps slowly into the soil benefitting your crop especially during the dry spells.

If the water becomes too much, then you can open up the end to drain your storm drain and your contours but make sure you cover them again.

Where you have got mulch, it is advisable again that when we trench our contours and storm drains, let's put mulch in so that we reduce the evaporation of water and encourage good retention. 

We also have tar ridging where you have got ridges and you create little dams in between and these tar ridges will help to reduce run off water and encourage more of harnessing and penetration of water and if you have got mulch it is highly advisable again that you put mulch in your little dams so that you reduce soil erosion or disturbance of the soil and you encourage more of penetration of water and reduce evaporation and encourage more retention. This helps the crop as it grows especially during the dry spells.

There's also pot holing or trenching in between the trenches maybe 15cm size of a hole in between the lines and even two holes about 30cm and the length can be 5 to 10 meters and you put several of them in your field and you also put mulching in that and that would also help in harnessing as much water as possible and reduce run off water and that water seeps into the soil to benefit our crops in the event of dry spells and the mulch will also help in reducing the evaporation of water and encourage more of good retention. And as they decompose they also help in improving the soil status. 

So these mitigation measures in combination with good land preparation and as well as planting the right crop for the ecological region you find that we should be in a position to escape as many dry spells as possible and we will see our crop through and get good yields at the end of the day.

Farmers as much as you are coming from dry spells and as much as you are receiving food handouts from the Government, please be advised that this was a very good lesson for us and I believe at households we have also changed our eating habits and we have also changed the way we were preparing our food. You find we were in the habit of eating sadza in the morning, sadza in the afternoon and sadza in the evening, whatever a meal three times a day and many people have moved to probably at most two meals a day and sometimes one meal per day. When I say one meal a day, it means one heavy meal and you have lighter in the morning and lighter in the evening before you go to bed. It doesn't mean this is poverty, not at all. This is what the body wants. You eat much of your food during the day and less at night.

So as we get abundance, let's not compensate for the food we didn't eat during this period here. Let's make sure we continue with that as this will help the nation in preserving whatever we are going to harvesting and store in the strategic grain reserves. If you are still eating three full meals per day, this is food loss. Let's cook what we can eat and finish as well as what can satisfy our nutritional needs."