As a result of the El Nino effect, Zimbabwe had a short and sharp farming season, which prompted the government to act through two major mitigation interventions to guarantee food security.
As previously reported by the WEEKLY, Zimbabwe faces a food security crisis as the impacts of an El Nino event, which delayed the onset of rainfall and prolonged dry spells, will have a significant negative impact on food production and disrupt the food supply chain.
Pfumvudza, a household agroecology program based on conservation agriculture, is leading this endeavour to guarantee food security in response to climate change.
We are exclusively revealing how the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development is addressing the invasive El Nino drought through household mitigation, an aggressive farmer sensitization program, and reviving irrigation across the country.
According to a top official from the ministry, the mitigation programs at households have led to an increase in the production of small grain crops by conserving agricultural practices referred to as Pfumvudza.
Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Services director Leonard Munamati told delegates at a Climate Change conference convened by the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG), that the government is adopting a multipronged approach to tackle food security and depressed agricultural productivity.
The government program of the Presidential Input Scheme was initially leveraged for Pfumvudza in the short term and interim, but full adoption of the strategy is long-term to enhance productivity and good agriculture productivity, states Munamati.
“This year we have had a short and sharp season where the significant rains for planting started late. Onset delays prevented farmers from planting, and this represented the driest start of the season for the past forty years for several provinces.
“In response to this, the Ministry engaged in an education and sensitization campaign for farmers to make strategic planting based on agroecological regions with a focus on small grains for farmers in the dry natural regions.
“Under the mitigation program at a household level, focusing on conservation agricultural practice of Pfumvudza for household food security- farmers that practiced principals have fared well.”
According to statistics from the Ministry, communal farmers’ adoption of household conservation agriculture for maize has improved significantly by 51% to cover around 447,000 hectares, albeit under partial compliance with the principles of the program.
Additionally, traditional small grain crop uptake for sorghum has increased by 27% to cover 405,000 hectares, under the strategic agroecological matching strategy for household food security.
Munamati states that Zimbabwe is buoyed by the availability of water in the push for national irrigation rehabilitation and resuscitation of irrigation projects currently operating at low-capacity utilization.
The targeted interim improvement of existing irrigation projects will target to meet the national grain requirements of 1.8 million tonnes, by increasing coverage from the current 217 000 to 350000 hectares.
Overall, this will still represent a fractional resuscitation as the national small to medium dams’ capacity can cover 2 million hectares under irrigation- a capability that can bolster Zimbabwe’s agriculture to supply the continent.
“Nationally we are focusing on the development and rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure, of the 10000 plus small-medium scale dams which can irrigate 2 million hectares, while we are only covering 75 000 hectares from a possible 217000 hectares.
“We target to increase to at least 350 000 hectares as a minimum based on cereal consumption of 1.8 million tonnes. With this acreage of 5 tonnes per hectare, we can meet this target to guarantee food security in our strategic grain reserves.
“Focus is also on ramping up wheat production from 90000 hectares covered last year, to sustainably utilize areas under functional irrigation.”
Small-scale increase in borehole drilling in communal areas targets 35000 villages (minimum of one solar powered, to support drip irrigation for village business units, also be targeted for food and nutrition security.
The mitigation strategies are also aimed at adopting mechanized communal and commercial conservation agriculture under an ambitious long-term plan of rural development and industrialization.
“Fertilization is part of the rollout with phasing out for organic futuristic under the soil reconditioning programming and the full compliance to principles of conservation agriculture or Pfumvudza and we are targeting mechanizing Pfumvudza at a local level in communal areas.
“Adoption of strategy is long-term, progress so far is encouraging but ultimately the goal is to sustainably transform our agriculture and focus on rural development and industrialization. We have other policies and strategies that look at affordability, availability, and nutritional aspects, covered under rural development 8.0 to cover affordability and accessibility.
“We are also working to improve marketing by adopting systematic strategies to enhance business models and distribution for the benefit of farmers.”