Zimbabwe rains leaves some farmer's crops stranded
Some farmers, particularly those growing fruit, already find themselves stuck with produce ready for market but no way to get it there. In some areas road sections have been washed away and in others bridges are broken or what remains of the roads are muddy and slippery.
"There are no roads. They were washed away by the heavy rains,” said Liberty Kuhudzai, a farmer in Chipendeke, about 70 kilometres south of the city of Mutare.
“We have potatoes which are ready for the market but we can’t take them. And soon, the maize and other crops will be ready for the market too,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Chipendeke is one of the most vibrant small-scale farming areas in the province, in far eastern Zimbabwe. Farmers at the moment have potatoes, groundnuts, maize and various vegetables in the ground; in winter they grow wheat, beans, tomatoes and other vegetables.
But their main market is in the city of Mutare, and their farming area is connected to the main Mutare-Masvingo highway by a gravel road that snakes along the treacherous edges of the Chitora River.
source: reuters.com
