Story by Gay Matambo
MECHANISATION has been identified as a crucial factor in enhancing productivity in Zimbabwe’s sugarcane farming sector, given its ability to improve efficiency and encourage modern agricultural practices.
This was a key discussion point at a recent sugarcane field day held at the Zimbabwe Sugar Association Experiment Station in Chiredzi, where farmers and industry experts explored ways to optimise sugarcane production.
Speaking at the event, sugarcane out-growers emphasised that mechanised agriculture not only enhances efficiency but also promotes the adoption of innovative farming techniques.
“These interactions are important as it gives us the farmers exposure and an insight on new technologies. We have new technologies in the area of mechanised agriculture. There are so many things that we learnt today that if implemented they are going to lower our cost of production,” a sugarcane farmer said.
“We are at a stage where we have to employ smart agriculture for instance we can now use drones to apply pesticides on our crop, we have the drip irrigation technique which we did not know that it can be used in sugarcane production. There are also new technologies in plant maintenance, and we the industry growing if we employ these techniques,” a farmer said.
“We have seen that practising smart agriculture will ensure that as farmers we get a bumper harvest and we also learnt that managing pests using modern pesticides and modern ways to apply the pesticides will increase our yields,” a sugarcane farmer said.
The sugarcane field day was also a platform for the sugarcane out-growers to share notes on how they can improve the sector.
“We spoke on issues that are hindering productivity in the sugarcane farming sector and the main problem is lack of capital because sugarcane farming needs financial assistance hence we encouraged banks to continue partnering with sugarcane out-growers,” CEO of the Zimbabwe Sugar Association, Mr Edwin Kondo said.
Meanwhile, sugarcane out-growers are part of the beneficiaries of the Zimbabwe – Belarus mechanisation programme, which has seen them receiving farm machinery as part of efforts to boost productivity.
