Over 60 000 hectares of pastures and vegetation have been destroyed by veld fires in Mashonaland East Province since the beginning of the 2017 fire season. In a speech read on his behalf by the director of affairs in his office, Mr Muchemwa Mugwisi, in a meeting with the National Ministerial Committee on fire last week, Minister of State for Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs Retired Brigadier-General Ambrose Mutinhiri said veld fires had become a perennial environmental challenge.
"The national inter-ministerial fire committee has come to Mashonaland East at the most appropriate time, when the fire season is at its peak and the province has regrettably 62 156 ha of pastures and vegetation already affected by 254 veld fire incidences in 2017. Despite a number of intervention measures put in place such as raising awareness on fire issues to communities at risk and capacitating farmers to put fire preventative measures in place, as well as prosecuting some of the veld fire offenders, the fire continues to be a threat to the province. In 2017 fire season alone, 10 huts, one lorry, five tonnes of maize, 19 goats and 32 chickens and some irrigation pipes, to mention but a few, have already been lost to veld fires throughout the province," he said.
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