Berea, Jan 13—As the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition (MFSN) prepares to wrap up the summer cropping campaign, at least 6131 hectares of fields have been cultivated in Berea district.
This was confirmed by the Acting District Agricultural Officer (DAO) Ms. Malehloenya Mphanya during an interview with the Agency on Tuesday.
Ms. Mphanya pointed out that such hectares of cultivated fields cover both the block farmers and individual farmers whereby they have planted grain crops such as maize and beans.
She further said out of cultivated land, they only managed to sow maize on 3768 hectares due factors such as heavy rains which flooded some of the fields which are located on low lying areas.
Ms. Mphanya said on the block farming side where they have registered only 30 farmers; 2021 hectares of fields were cultivated, while they only managed to sow 1311 hectares of such cultivated land.
Acting DAO also highlighted that 1767 hectares of fields were cultivated and relatively sown beans, adding that on Friday this week it will be the last date of summer cropping campaign whereby the recommended crop still remains the beans.
She said all the crops planted are making good progress due to the prevailing weather conditions.
On the other hand, she said they are currently conducting the wheat harvesting campaign over the planted area which covers 666.6 hectares of fields.
Ms. Mphanya said since the resumption of the wheat harvesting campaign, they have so far harvested 172.53 hectares, while about 494 hectares is still left behind the reason being regular rains which disrupt their operations as some fields are flooded.
Additionally, she said they were working with one combine harvester, but it was only last week when they got additional support from three more new combine harvesters and as a result, they are expecting to see more progress.
According to the Agriculture Department, the wheat harvesting campaign is likely to be through by early February and thus starting the preparation of soil for winter cropping.
Meanwhile, Berea is one of the lowlands districts which has much arable land.
Ends/RM/BM
