By Bisola Adeyemo
The Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) in Zimbabwe has announced plans to train farmer field schools for cotton production alongside other crops to promote good agronomic practices and to improve crop quality.
AMA who is partnering with fertilizer manufacturers and seed houses made the announcement on Wednesday.
This exercise is part of the Government’s initiatives aimed at boosting agricultural productivity and profitability such as Pfumvudza/Intwasa and Small Holder Irrigation Schemes Revitalization Programme.
The farmer field schools training programme targeting 10 000 farmers is commencing from March 21 to end of May.
The first phase will see 4 800 farmers receiving face-to-face training while others will be trained virtually.
Farmers will be trained on cotton marketing, grading and contamination while others will receive training of horticulture crops on irrigation schemes.
AMA CEO, Mr Clever Isaya said technical guidance was of paramount importance in crop production.
“It is through training that farmers are able to grow for family consumption and earn more from selling surplus harvest. Remember, the Government’s mantra is that agriculture should be treated as a business.
“Thus, adoption of best practices will improve agricultural output and accelerate attainment of upper middle-income economy status by 2030,” he said.
AMA is also including Windmill, ZFC, FSG and Quton as well as chemical suppliers Agricura and Cure Chem to be partners for the training programme.
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