Zimbabwe has resorted to cloud seeding in an effort to bring rains so as to improve agricultural production, as severe food shortages persist.

Zimbabwe Resorts To Cloud Seeding For More Rain

A source with the Meteorological Services Department said a private company has been engaged to do the cloud seeding focusing mainly on areas of high agricultural activities and productivity.

“The company has since deployed aeroplanes in various cities and towns around the country, for this project.”

“Owing to the dry spell which hit the country of late, we resorted to cloud seeding in order to save many crops which are in the maturity stage, thereby helping many farmers to make meaningful harvests,” he said preferring anonymity.

Cloud seeding, a form of weather modification, is the attempt to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds, by dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei. The usual intent is to increase precipitation, but hail suppression is also widely practiced. Silver iodide and dry ice are the most commonly used substances in cloud seeding.

The Met Department source emphasises, in simpler terms, we are trying by all means to evade another poor agricultural season.

“Though the country experienced floods recently, to a larger extent, the rains played a significant role in assuring growth of crops,” he said.

Maize was the country's largest crop prior to the farm evictions. Tobacco was the largest export crop followed by cotton. Poor government management entailing weak economic policies has exacerbated meager harvests caused by drought and floods, resulting in significant food shortfalls beginning in 2001. The land redistribution has been generally condemned in the developed world. It has found considerable support in Africa and a few supporters among African-American activists

“The rains were pushed away by an unfavourable airflow affecting most parts of Southern Africa,” adds the source.

Latest statistics recently produced by the Agricultural ministry indicate communal and A1 farmers have for long outpaced commercial farmers in production.

Yesterday afternoon, a Kwekwe resident confirmed that an aeroplane hovers around the town ‘spraying some substance’ in the air.

“Everyday I see the small aeroplane at around mid-day. At night, that is when it usually rains,” she said.

Recently, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe dismissed the Agricultural ministry’s upbeat of a bumper harvest citing the country needs more food. He cited his government as lying to the nation.

Last year, many international organisation had projected that over 4 million people, a third of the population would be in need of food aid until the next harvest sometime in March this year.

---

Share This Story On:

Average user rating