Mixture of hope, fear for farmers

FARMERS across the country have begun to make land preparations for the coming planting season, amid a mixture of hope and anxiety about high costs of inputs, erratic power supplies, funding challenges and adverse weather forecasts.
This comes as there are concerted efforts by both the government and the farming community to raise Zimbabwe’s agricultural production substantially.
Speaking to The Financial Gazette this week, the chief economist for the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), Antonette Chingwe, said the potential for the country to boost its agricultural produce significantly was there, although various challenges facing the sector would need to be resolved to achieve this.