Agrinews October 2012 - Ministry of Agriculture

VISIONFOUNDATIONPILLARSeditor’s noteALTERNATIVES ARE THEREAttain national food securityand global competitivenessin agricultural productsMISSIONTo improve agricultural productivitythrough technology developmentand transfer, diversification andcommercialization, inorder to promote food security inpartnership with our stakeholders.VALUES1. BOTHOWe treat our customers ina respectable and caring manner.2. TEAM WORKWe recognize the need to work asa team characterized by collectiveeffort, trust, understanding,support and perseveranceirrespective of rank or gender.3. CUSTOMER FOCUSEDOur customers are the focusof everything we do by beingcourteous, caring, compassionate,tolerant and empathetic.4. INNOVATIVEWe commit to employ new ideasand being proactive in order tomatch the requirements of thefuture.5. INTEGRITYWe foster a culture of transparency,accountability and dependability.Indeed times flies. It is yetanother ploughing season andeveryone is praying for goodrains so that they can plough andhave good harvest. The reality issuch rains are no longer coming.This therefore calls for carefulplanning to benefit from the littlesoil moisture content that can bereceived this rainy season.It will be a wise decisionfor farmers to think of hybridswhich are tolerant to dry spells,in particular, the maize cropwhich normally fails due to hightemperature.Farmers must always take stockof what happened to their cropsin the past seasons, such as lastyear, where a little precipitationwas received resulting in loweryields than anticipated.H y b r i d h a s d e s i r a b l echaracteristics of early maturityand drought tolerance with theability to increase crop yield.Therefore for famers to increasetheir harvest per hectare theymust dedicate themselves to theuse of hybrid seeds.Using hybrid seeds does notmean that some agronomicpractices such as weedingand cultivation should be ignored.Be it a hybrid or not holistic cropmanagement is a necessity.Those in the livestock sector shouldcontinue to provide their animals withsupplementary feeds, so that theycould survive the harsh conditions.Provide your animals with amongstothers coarse salt, drought pelletsand ensure that the animals arevaccinated for botulism.We know that our farmers havesurvived such hard conditions beforeand it is our humbly hope that Yesthey can. It is in such difficulties thateveryone of us becomes innovativeto do things better. Those, who areunable to sustain their livestock isbetter to sell them and save themoney until things improve.With the grace of God all odds canbe conquered.1October 2012