In the face of a looming severe drought in Swaziland, farmers have been advised to grow sorghum as well as to adapt their strategies to growing maize, the main staple crop. Various agricultural officials gave coping advise to farmers at a recent maize and sorghum field day held at Mayiwane in the northern Hhohho region.
Speaking of the available market opportunities for sorghum, Chang-Ching Yeh, a Taiwanese diplomat and guest at the occasion, said, "We have Nutrifoods which needs 120 tonnes per year. Swaziland Milling also needs 5 000 tonnes per year. For the export market we have the South Africa United Breweries which needs 1 600 tonnes per month. That translates to almost 20 000 tonnes a year." He further advised the farmers, " Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Do not only plant maize but also sorghum, sweet potato and groundnuts to reduce risk."
He said the government of Taiwan would assist Swaziland to increase agricultural productivity, mainly through the provision of technical and financial assistance and the implementation of the the Swazi/Taiwan Small Holder Maize and Sweet Potato projects. It was also assisting with maize and sorghum "block farming," with the areas under the two crops now being 110 hectares.
"The advantage of using grouped fields is that mechanisation, pest control, general management of the field and harvesting is now easier to control. A small number of farmers can easily manage a large farm, resulting in improved production yield per hectare from the national base of 1.4 tonnes to five tonnes per hectare. Production costs have been reduced while the profit margin increased five times," he said.
Swazi agriculture ministry official Thanky Gama advised farmers to adopt new farming strategies for maize. She said in the past, the ministry had been advising farmers to reducing the space but "due to the heat wave which is hitting hard on our crops, we have since changed the concept. Make sure you leave up to 30cm space between the maize plants to allow for air to circulate freely and make the plants withstand the heat. The situation we are facing really calls for us to change our ways of doing things." She too advised farmers to also grow drought-tolerant, quick-maturing crops such as sorghum.
Speaking at the same occasion, Sipho Dlamini, a manager at the National Maize Corporation has advised farmers not to be fooled into selling all their maize by a lucrative price caused by the current drought. "You might be tempted to sell all your maize in order to have lots of money but that will backfire as you will thereafter have to buy mealie-meal, which will not be cheap. Millers have already increased mealie-meal prices and the likelihood is that the price will continue to soar. You must be careful not to starve your families."
Dlamini further urged farmers to always keep guard of their maize storage tanks against theft, warning that the number of maize theft cases might rise because of the price and shortage of the crop countrywide. He said that things would be tough for NMC as it might be compelled to import from overseas because South Africa, also suffering from an expected drought-caused maize shortfall, does not have enough for export and might increase its maize price. It has announced that it will no longer export its yellow maize. "Let's be smart and careful with whatever we do. Things are really bad this year. I am here to warn you," said Dlamini.
The Swazi Observer
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