East Chief says poor rainfall to affect crop yield

———— A traditional leader in Chipata District in Eastern Province says the poor rainfall pattern experienced this year will adversely affect crop yields in his Chiefdom.

Chief Madzimawe of the Ngoni people said that the poor rainfall pattern experienced during the 2012/13 farming season had already shown signs of crop failure in some cases.

Speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Chipata over the weekend, Chief Madzimawe stated that cotton which still needed water was also badly affected as the rains have already gone when the crop needed water to grow to expectation.

Chief Madzimawe said even animals would be affected because there was little water to drink as the streams were not filled with water to expectations.

And the traditional leader said the move by government to start distributing inputs to the people by September was a welcome move which should be saluted.

However, Chief Madzimawe said that government should involve stakeholders to effectively distribute the commodity on time to farmers in all parts of the country.

Chief Madzimawe said there was need to utilize traditional leaders who were closer to the people and are aware of numerous challenges that farmers faced with regard to distribution of inputs.

The traditional ruler further said there was need for government and traditional leaders to work together to address the challenge of input delivery among other things.