The recent heatwave in the lowveld of the Lubombo region has devastated the staple food and other crops heralding imminent disaster.
Deputy Prime Minister Paul Dlamini says government is on full alert and already reaching out while at the same time appealing for more assistance.
The situation is so dire that farmers are at a loss because not even the cash crops of sunflower, cotton and also sweet potato have been doing well under the circumstance.
They all want to enlist for food aid because of the unavailability of survival strategies, what with the stinging unemployment affecting most rural communities. The maize crop, which is the staple food promises zero harvest save for the irrigated fields of the mechanised plantations in parts of the sugar belt of the Lubombo region.Agriculture Minister Moses Vilakati says the affected communities were advised to diversify their crop or changed completely into planting drought resistant crops as opposed to growing mainly maize. He adds that they were told to plant the requisite types for crops and that is why they were not even part of the input subsidy programme.
Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/
