SEVERAL communal farmers in parts of Beitbridge, Matabeleland South province, have lost thousands of dollars in potential income from crops following violent hailstorms that swept across parts of the dry district this week.
The storms also destroyed fruit plantations and infrastructure and damaged solar installations to irrigation systems put in place by communal farmers.
Agritex head at Beitbridge, Masauso Mawocha, said a Mtetengwe farmer lost 20 000 heads of cabbages, 10 000 plants of water melons and green mealies all ready for the market.
These figures alone translate to more than US$30 000, considering a cabbage head costs a dollar or more just as much as a water melon.
Other losses incurred were on infrastructure.
“Farmers should, as a matter of urgency, consider insuring their high value crops. This loss is huge and farmers venturing into such production must seriously consider cushioning themselves,” Mawocha said.
“We experienced such losses to frost in winter and just when the farmers were recovering, they were again hit by the hailstorms which lashed the district.
“Insurance companies must come on board if we are to make self-sustenance meaningful.”
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Many communal farmers in Beitbridge have invested in irrigation farming and are venturing into cash crops as well as citrus farming, which has changed the complexion of the district in eco-ecological region five characterised by long dry spells and very little or no rainfall.
Mawocha said the most affected parts of Beitbridge were wards 6 and 14, where several communal farmers have put vast tracts of land under irrigation.
Former Beitbridge Rural District Council chairman Joseph Muleya sent a distress call after suffering the huge losses where his 20 000 cabbages, 10 000 water melons plants, orange fruit plantation and solar panels powering his irrigation scheme were damaged.
“The storm destroyed trees, there are no leaves on trees. It destroyed irrigation pipes, it hit solar panels and I don’t even know where to start or what to do,” he posted in a district stakeholders social media platform.
“The storm was violent and I have been left weakened. I have been paralysed.”
