Climate Story Jeffrey Gogo
Philip Chabuda, and his wife Beula, have lived all their married life tilling what are known as “acres” at Nyanyadzi Irrigation Scheme, in Chimanimani. Over the years, the couple has witnessed their harvest increasingly choked by silt – that fine top soil – and a result of extensive deforestation and overgrazing in the area. Fields have turned into lifeless sandfields, unsuitable for crop production.

“Each year it was a struggle for us as we had to scoop out the silt from the previous season from the fields, if we were to get a good harvest,” said the 62 -year old, who farms on a small plot of just an acre in size, one of 15 badly affected by the silt. These are what are known colloquially as “acres”.

The task required an ox-drawn cart and a scooper, which he would hire at $5 per day. Apart from being slow and labour-intensive, the desilting was too much of a strain on the elderly couple’s resources.

We have illustrated in a previous installment how a $4 million project to scale up climate change adaptation has carried out massive restoration works at Nyanyadzi, a gravity-fed irrigation system, helping farmers in one of Zimbabwe’s driest, drought-prone regions cope with changing climates.

The programme, which began in 2014 and ending in October this year, is being implemented at different scales across three districts vulnerable to climate change – Buhera, Chimanimani and Chiredzi – by global charity Oxfam in partnership with SAFIRE, University of Zimbabwe and Government. It is jointly funded by the UN Development Programme and the Global Environment Facility.

The project is starting to bring new hope to farmers at Nyanyadzi, which supports 721 farmers on 412 hectares. Farmers had seen the worst of frequent extreme events like drought and floods decimating harvests after capacity at the 85 year old irrigation had dropped to just 13 percent in recent years, according to Anne Madzara, head of poverty, environment and climate at UNDP

Now, the Scaling up Adaptation project has supported villagers to desilt and repair water canals, construct silt traps and canal support structures, facilitating a return to gainful labour for the farmers..

“In 2017 we would not have planted anything because with the amount of rain we received from tropical cyclone Dineo, even the canals would have been swept away, but because of the conservation works established under this project, we are happy no silt got to our fields and canals,” said Chabuda, with the devastation of a cyclone that struck Zimbabwe earlier in 2017 fresh in the mind.

“We are very happy. For the first time in 17 years I have been able to harvest 1,1 tonnes of maize from my one acre plot. I no longer need humanitarian assistance,” he said.

Irrigation is widely considered a key tool for helping rural farmers in agro-based economies like Zimbabwe’s adapt to climate change. The technology has been found to hold potential that redefines water use and water use efficiency to maximise agriculture production systems and yields

Due to siltation, which caused a shortage of water, farmers at Nyanyadzi had turned to planting drought tolerant crops such as sorghum and groundnuts in the dry season, and then maize during the rainy season..

Before that, farmers used to grow a variety of crops such as, beans, tomatoes, maize and wheat all year round, guaranteeing enough food for household consumption and for sale. “We have been facing food shortages since the siltation started. As a result, most fields were abandoned as farmers sought odd jobs to take care of their families,” said Chabuda.

Thanks to the silt traps, the canals have been protected, and farmers enabled to plant throughout the year, he said.

The project district coordinator for Chimanimani Runyararo Munondo, said “resolving the Nyanyadzi Irrigation Scheme siltation problems required not just focusing on the irrigation but the watershed management part of the problem as well.

“We are looking at how best to reduce soil erosion and sedimentation across the whole micro-watershed upstream of the irrigation to ensure topsoil is preserved. There is need to integrate good land management practices at the farm level and surrounding areas for better watershed management but this will also need policy support to be successful,” said Munondo.

Other farmers have equally rediscovered the wonder. Beauty Mwakutuya, a 54-year old single mother of six from Nyanhanda village, also in Chimanimani, is smiling again, having spent years “battling with sand” to keep her family alive.

Her husband, now late, introduced her to winter farming and they cashed in on tomatoes, beans and wheat during their early married life, building a home, and buying livestock and farming equipment from the surplus.

As time passed, and more families came to settle in the village, Nyanyadzi irrigation canals slowly were at the receiving end of heavy siltation. Every time rain came, it would be another episode of sand piling into the irrigation canals and in the fields while blocking the much-needed water from reaching the crops.

When her husband died, leaving her with six children to feed, Mwakutuya almost gave up farming as the sand inexorably choked her yield. She accumulated debts at school, could not afford fertilisers and barely secured food for the household.

“I was slowly losing my plot as my field was gradually covered by sand, but water is flowing again through the canals into my field,” said Mwakutuya,cheerfully.

“I am producing again,” she said.

Dr Leonard Unganai, the Scaling up Adaptation project manager said: “This success story of resuscitation and climate proofing Nyanyadzi demonstrates the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships in dealing with the multi-dimensional challenge of climate change adaptation.”

God is faithful.

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