About $3.13 million worth of maize covering 12 000 hectares all over the country has been destroyed by the persistent drought, local media reports here on Monday.Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture reflect that about 12 000 hectares that have been planted so far by those who took chances, hoping it would rain soon. Minister of Agriculture, Moses Vilakati, says farmers registered for about 60 000 hours to use the government tractor service and of the hours registered for by farmers, 30 000 hours were ‘ploughed’ which is equivalent to 30 000 hectares and about 12 000 hectares were planted. It was reported that the minister says with the little rains received and most of the fields were planted while the soil moisture content was very low it resulted in poor seed germination. “The minister said in some places farmers experienced germination failure due to little moisture content in the soil,â€� the report states.