Constant power cuts and high bills could cripple irrigation agriculture and affect more than 500 farmers here.
The farmers, who work at night when power is available, said they were worried that their summer crops would not do well due to a poor water supply.
“Irrigation farming requires electricity to pump water from the river into canals, but we spend the days without electricity and this makes life very difficult,” said Irrigation Scheme Secretary, Ambassador Mukonzvi.
One of the irrigation farmers, Juliet Sithole, said inflated power bills were making work difficult.
“Every month we collectively pay up to $1000 dollars and this is burdening us as we are not producing much. Last time we incurred losses on our tomatoes which did not sell as well as he had hoped due to low demand,” she said.
The chairman of irrigation scheme, Elias Ziwenjere, said they had raised the issue of bills with power utility company, Zesa and were awaiting a response.