For Zimbabwe’s farmers, it never rains but it pours
After a severe drought, farmers have been struck by heavy rains that have damaged maize and tobacco crops
Harare — Farmers in Zimbabwe, emerging from the region’s worst drought in at least two decades, are being threatened with a second year of losses as heavy rains damage maize and tobacco crops. A crop review is under way to assess the damage from the unseasonably heavy rain, and farmers will probably need extra fertilizer to help harvests survive, deputy agriculture minister David Marapira said on Monday. Farming output in the southern African nation was crippled by2016’s drought and as many as 4-million Zimbabweans remain on food aid, according to the government. The heavy rains are expected to continue for at least another week, Zimbabwe’s meteorological department said on state radio. The tobacco industry is seeing damage across all growing areas and carrying out its own crop assessment, said Andrew Matibiri, CEO of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board. "There is a lot of false ripening on the crop because of the incessant rains and that puts severe pressure on the farmer to q...
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