Southern Africa Development Community weather experts have warned of potential floods in the region following the prediction of normal to above normal rainfall in Southern Africa this season. The experts, however, said the rainfall outlook was good for agriculture as it presented a conducive opportunity for farmers to maximise on production.
The SADC weather experts said, from a crop production perspective, farmers could comprehensively utilise the forecast by committing a larger portion of their cropland to medium to late maturing, high performance varieties.
The experts urged farmers to put early maturing, and drought-tolerant crops and varieties on some percentage of the cropland as a contingency measure to guard against the outside possibility of below average rains.
According the preparedness scores and maps, the priority Member States for Flood Risk Management investments are DRC, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Angola, Madagascar and Zambia.
Zimbabwe is expected to receive normal to above normal rains during the 2016-17 rainfall season with agriculture experts advising farmers to plant with the first rains.
The higher than usual rains are expected to come as early as late September in some parts of the country.
Source: allafrica.com