GOOD RAINS EXPECTED IN NEXT 6 MONTHS

MBABANE - Good news!

Eswatini Meteorological Service Department has predicted good rains in the next six months.

 According to Sifiso Nzalo, the country is likely to receive plenty of rainfall starting from October 2020 until March 2021.

Nzalo was speaking on nation radio, where he was invited by the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) to share the weather forecast of the 2020 farming season. 

His invitation was aimed at two things; to assist the nation in planning ahead of the season in order to improve food production and to help emaSwati to circumvent any danger that might result from rainfall as summer rains are usually accompanied by heavy storms. 

Wandile Mavuso, the Public Relations Officer at NDMA, advised the nation to plan for the coming rains in order to minimise risks.  He made an example of people who put stones on top of their roofing, stating that such was likely to cause danger during heavy storms. 

Nzalo stated that for now, the department was not in a position to predict floods and heavy storms as it was still too early. He said the department was only able to predict an imminent storm or floods at short notice. 

Advice 

As a majority of emaSwati rely on agriculture for food, the Ministry of Agriculture was sought for advice ahead of the farming season. Nelson Mavuso, Director of Agriculture, said the ministry was grateful for the anticipated rains as predicted by the Eswatini Meteorological Service Department. 

The director urged farmers to take advantage of the good rains in order to ensure self sufficiency. However, he warned that farmers should not rush to plant crops after the light drizzle. The director advised farmers to engage farm experts concerning the right time to plant crops.

“What farmers need to understand is the terminology used by the Eswatini Meteorological Service Department. Farmers need to understand that when the Eswatini Meteorological Service Department talks about normal to above normal rainfall, they refer to specific locations in the country,” he said. 

He made an example that the amount of rainfall differed according to regions. He mentioned that farmers should not be confused by the term ‘above normal.’

The director said ‘above normal’ normally referred to 600 to 800mm rainfall in the Highveld while it meant 300mm rainfall in the Lowveld. 

Crops 

“This means farmers from the Highveld should grow crops favourable to the region such as maize. Lowveld farmers should grow crops favourable to the region such as sunflower and cotton. They should not be tempted to grow crops which are not favourable to their region,” warned Mavuso.

The director added that farmers should consider the extreme heat in the absence of rainfall. He said heat might be dangerous to some crops grown in other regions.

He said farm experts would always be available to assist farmers during the course of the farming season.  Worth noting is that last week, the National Maize Corporation announced places where farmers were expected to get farm inputs from across the country. 

If the predicted weather forecast is anything to go by, it would mean farmers may have a better harvest this year. From history, Eswatini used to receive good rains between October and March resulting in a good harvest. 

However, in the past few years, 2015/2016 in particular, the country experienced a drought resulting in the death of about 50 000 livestock. There was a huge drop in food production as the country received little rains. 

The country also experienced water rationing as dam levels dropped to almost 10 per cent.

The situation improved in 2017/2018 as satisfactory rains were received on time. In 2019, there were late rains, which lasted until May 2020. 

There were also heavy storms, which destroyed crops in the fields. 

Some farmers did not bother planting crops resulting in many people running out of food. The situation was worsened by the COVID-19 outbreak. It was reported even before the outbreak that about 232 000 (25 per cent) of the rural population was expected to experience severe acute food insecurity, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

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