By Sukuoluhle Ndlovu
Nemamwa – The Covid-19 global pandemic has greatly affected rural farmers in the country as they are failing sell their produce.
Farmers located in the rural areas of Ward 24 in Chikwadze village have incurred huge losses as compared to the marginal returns they were expecting.
The farmers have a fodder garden called Mutorahuku acquired through Aquaculture. The garden is mostly for commercial purposes and they generate profits from selling the produce.
In interviews with Bustop TV farmers in the area said due to the national lock-down they had failed to trade.
“We are surviving through farming and making a living out of it, we have managed to secure our lives through farming as we sold our produce and made money but Covid -19 made us run huge loses. We have failed to get markets and even individuals did not come forward.
“People are still on national lock-down and it is very difficult for us, as no one is coming forth. This year we have planted so many tomatoes and an individual could harvest at least 5 full buckets per day but
it was so unfortunate for us as we did not manage to sell anything, we ended up trading the tomatoes locally in fear that they might end up going bad,” said Vavarirai Phiri.
Another farmer, John Maparadze said they have ran loses and now even fear to expand and incorporate different farming mechanisms.
“We are farming for commercial use and when we plant our plants we expect more harvest an also more money for us. This year things did not go according to our plans as nothing came out. So many outputs were used but the output was very low. Covid -19 has made life difficult for us as farmers.
We could not even market our produce; hence we even want to venture into goat and chicken farming but with the current situation, we now fear the same could happen as well,” he said.
The farmers in the area called upon the government and various organisations to help them so that they can be able to sell their produce and improve their livelihoods.
