Farmers in Gokwe are pinning their hopes on drought resistant cotton plant following erratic rains during the summer farming season that left most crops devastated.
A wet spell that characterised the country later did not help the situation as the sandy soils in the area were easily washed away by the rains leaving farmers with little hope.
Gokwe Central Legislator Dorothy Mhangami said farmers are now relying on the cotton that survived the summer cropping season disaster.
She said Gawa area and wards 19 and 32 were the most affected.
“As you know cotton is the common grown crop in this area. Most of the cotton crop did not survive the erratic rains though, but the crop that survived is enough to buy foodstuffs for the families. I can say only a third of cotton survived and the rest was washed away by the heavy rains that pounded the area,” she said.
Cde Mhangami said even the small grains that were planted in the later stages were also destroyed.
“Our soil is sandy and it’s not suitable in any condition, so when rains came we were urged to plant small grains, but they also were washed away together with the few maize crop that had survived the scotching heat,” said Cde Mhangami.
She called on government to intervene through food aid amongst other programmes.
“I think government will need to assist much as compared to the previous years because this year the drought is more severe than previous years,” she said.
She said people are registering on a daily basis for assistance.
“We notified the District Civil Protection Unit and I hope they have started working on it. We are receiving reports of people who need assistance on a daily basis and numbers are swelling by the day, we certainly hope the government will timeously intervene,” she said.
