Zimbabwe has recourse to e-farming to curb food shortages

The level of famine caused by food shortage has been an obstacle to the people in Zimbabwe leading to malnutrition and deaths, according to the University of Zimbabwe (UZ).
E-farming platform allows sharing of digital information through mobile including on better farming methods, purchase of farming inputs, crop diseases, market prices, research-based agriculture data and animal husbandry.
University of Zimbabwe’s public relations director Denis Rwafa said e-farming would help the country to progress in the agriculture sector as well as ensure food security, and excess production for export purposes.
Rwafa confirmed that the pilot project is currently available to farmers who have already registered with the University of Zimbabwe but plans are underway to official launch it in early October.
Analysts expect the service to be also effective in handling maximum production in other sector, aside from agriculture provided the research guidelines are followed.
Rwafa said the university decided to come up with the solutions because of the challenges that farmers go through leading to poor production hence resulting to loss of lives, food shortage and government’s inefficiency in boosting the agriculture sector.

Manicaland commercial farmer Muchineripi Muyambo said that farmers in the region tend to produce poor yields as a result of challenges caused by a lack of proper farming information such as weather update, new hybrid seeds, price for inputs and market information, the ITWeb Africa reported.

Muyambo hailed the university for the e-farming Project terming it as “the most appropriate solution to the challenges facing farming across the country.”

Rwafa further requested the farmers in the country to embrace technology by registering their cellphone numbers with the institution’s database system if they have to benefit from the services.