By Perpetua Murungweni
In the face of the El Nino-induced drought, farmers in communal lands are resorting to use of the residue of crops which could not mature due to poor rainfall to make stock feed for their livestock.
Agricultural Technical and Extension services (AGRITEX) on July 12, together with a group of veterinary officials and agronomist gathered at a Sikato Plot in ward 4 Masvingo District where they trained communal farmers on how to use crop waste to make stock feed ensuring the survival of their livestock.
Masvingo District ward 4 Agritex extension officer, Simeon Mashuro said they are on a program of equipping farmers with skills to produce their own stock feed.
“We managed to train around 35 farmers from ward 4 and the program is meant to equip farmers with skills to convert crop waste and grass into stock feed to ensure sustainability of their livestock during the El Nino-induced drought season. This practice promotes sustainable agriculture by reducing waste conserving resources and promoting environmentally friendly methods. These skills also help farmers to generate additional income by selling their stock feed,” said Mashuro.
One of the farmers Perpetua Mvurahungomwa said the training was held at her homestead where farmers gathered and were able to make a tonne of stock feed.
“We received training from a group of agronomists and some veterinaries on how to make stock feed and we were able to make about a tonne of stock feed using 1000kgs of crop residues, we will be moving from one house hold to another helping each other making about a tonne of stock feed or more depending on how much crop waste the farmer has,” said Mvurahungomwa.
Mvurahungomwa said as farmers they were happy with the training because the production of the feed is and affordable.
“The feed is very easy and cheap to make, we used a bag of urea fertilizer, 5kg salt and 20 litres of molasses. As a community we are happy that in this dry season we are now able to save money from buying expensive commercial feed for our livestock,” said Mvurahungomwa.
Simbisai Taruberekera expressed his happiness and said the training was going to help farmers adapt to climate change and preserve the environment.
“We are happy that as farmers we have gained skills to adapt to climate change and climate related challenges like droughts and we are now able to make sure that are livelihoods are resilient to climate change. As farmers we are now able to reduce our crop waste by not burning, which is hazardous to the environment but rather we are now able to manage our crop waste through environmental friendly ways.
“We were very worried about how our livestock was going to survive this drought but by us being able to make our own feed making sure that our livestock are health and can survive the harsh drought conditions,” said Taruberekera.
