Sibonguthando Dube
MIRROR REPORTER

MBERENGWA –Farmers in Mberengwa held a hydrogel Field Day at the Chiravirwa Mratu homestead in Ward 26 under Chief Chingoma on Wednesday last week.
Hydrogel is a substance that absorbs moisture during wet seasons and releases it in dry spell. Farmers in Mberengwa were encouraged to adopt the technology that is capable of storing water for them to obtain good harvests.
The field day was held under the theme ‘Improved technologies in addressing moisture stress and improving food and nutrition security through high productivity in semi-arid environment’. It was attended by Mberengwa District Development Coodinator (DDC) Vafios Hlavati, officers from Mberengwa Rural District Council, Agritex District head Alfred Samutsa , farmers and Shumbashava primary school staff and pupils.
Mberengwa District Agronomist Robert Tinoziva told The Mirror that the main objective of the field day was to observe the difference between crops planted with hydrogel and those without.
“We held a field day at Mratu homestead and we were observing the differences in crop height and cob sizes among crops with and without hydrogel. We planted three plots of maize for experiments. We had a plot which was planted using hydrogel with mulching, the other one has hydrogel only and the last has mulching only.
“We do not have results so far but basing on what we observed hydrogel plants are healthy. A scientific method of viewing results will be used during harvesting that is to measure cob length, weigh grains and see which crops had more yields.
“Hydrogel helps in pfumvudza, you put 5 grams in a single pit and each gram contains 1 litre of water which means at the end you have 5 litres of water during the dry season. Hydrogel absorbs water during wet seasons and releases it during dry spell, so the crops do not suffer moisture stress,” he said.