FOOD security, as defined by the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security, means that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.

Access to quality, nutritious food is therefore fundamental to human existence and necessary for human happiness.

Secure access to food can produce wide-ranging positive impacts, including economic growth and job creation.

In Zimbabwe, the agricultural sector which is responsible for feeding the nation and providing livelihoods to 67 percent of the country’s population in rural areas and vital for recovery and growth of the economy has however, been limping.

Food insecurity, has been consistently growing in Zimbabwe. Official figures show that during the period 2015 to 2020, the proportion of food-insecure rural population ranged between 30 and 59 percent and urban vulnerability was also on the rise reaching 30 percent or 2,2 million people by 2020.

Further, the proportion of chronically food insecure people in rural and urban communities according to figures provided by Government in the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) increased from about 500 000 in 2015 to about 1,7 million people in 2020.

Mindful of that, the Government initiated the process of enhancing agricultural productivity and production built on sustainable production systems anchored on building resilience of social-ecological systems.

The initiatives adopted included but were not limited to upscaling and expediting irrigation rehabilitation and expansion so that there is full utilisation of existing and new water bodies, use of climate smart agriculture through adoption of conservation agriculture techniques and principles such as Pfumvudza/Intwasa.

They also included the development of stress-tolerant, high-yielding crop varieties, promotion of traditional grains in low potential areas which are climate smart, implementation of commercial contract farming that is led by financial services with Government providing guarantees.

Of the above, a low hanging fruit which could be implemented with limited resources was the climate proof agriculture concept that was supported by the Presidential input support scheme.

The concept adopts conservation agriculture techniques or principles such as minimum soil disturbances and mulching, soil fertility management through soil conditioning practices including liming and manuring and it hasn’t been disappointing.

The concept came into being after trends showed that unlike in the distant past where a number of communities in the countryside used to live pretty well off their communal pieces of land, they were no longer harvesting much owing to the effects of climate change.

The sky has been very unpredictable.

The sun has been rising with a fierce cruelty, throwing its rays at the brown earth and licking every drop of dew with an unrestrained glee and giving nothing in return.

And when it rains, the rains are usually cyclonic and associated with flash flooding destroying both crops and infrastructure leaving communities hopeless and with a food deficit headache.

This has been happening year in and year out living not only Zimbabwe but the sub-Saharan Africa region reeling from the adverse effects of climate change that have caused output in the agriculture sector to decline.

And the Government has been always the last stop in the intervention hierarchy where it would import and distribute food to the vulnerable households.

Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Co-Deputy Minister, Douglas Karoro said the results for the climate proof agriculture concept was there for all to see.

The deputy minister said there was a marked improvement in maize deliveries to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and that was going to put a stop to the grain imports and let the resources be channelled towards other important things such as procurement of drugs.

He said the concept involves the utilisation of small pieces of land and applying the correct agronomic practices for an improved agricultural production adding that irrigation schemes were also being revamped with a view to putting more land under agriculture production.

The approach according to the concept paper can be used in marginal areas and still give high yields allowing smallholder farmers to achieve household food security, while large-scale farmers can produce for the strategic grain reserve.

Its three key basic principles are that it uses minimum or zero tillage, it emphasises on the maintenance of organic mulch cover on the soil surface and it involves the use of crop rotations and interactions that include legume crops.

“The concept of Pfumvudza is basically a way of climate proofing our agriculture.

Fundamentally this is conservation farming.

The practice seeks to conserve moisture and to reduce soil losses through erosion.

There is very little disturbance to the soil as only holing out is done.

“A key component to the concept is the covering of the plot with leaves or any dead plant material as mulch to avoid excessive moisture loss,” said Deputy Minister Karoro.

He added that the concept was a crop production intensification approach that allows farmers to concentrate resources and expend energy on a small land unit to facilitate optimum management resulting in increased productivity.

The deputy minister said farmer trainings were done when the concept started last year and the farmers did not wait this year as they were excited by the results last year.

He noted that climate change had led to frequent droughts and limited precipitation.

Pfumvudza therefore, helps to conserve the little precipitation through mulching and harvesting it in the dug-out holes.

And for purposes of nutrition and crop rotation the concept encourages that farmers prepare two plots, one for cereals (maize or small grains) and another one for legumes thus providing a protein source to complement the cereal.

Agronomist and farmer Mr Davison Masendeke said it was encouraging that Government was coming up with concepts aimed at improving agriculture production to avert food insufficiency.

He said the concept was not really new as some communities were already doing although it was spearheaded by various NGOs that were into agriculture as part of conservation farming methods that sought to adapt them to climate change realities.

“Pfumvudza is a conservation farming concept that is not really new in some of the country’s communities.

It has been practiced under different names but the principles are fairly the same.

The difference is that now it is the government taking the initiative and making it national where it was done through NGOs in small selected communities.

“The concept is therefore, a sustainable way of crop production intensification whereby farmers concentrate resources on a smaller piece of land reducing labour demand and resulting in higher productivity from lower investment, hence higher profit margins,” said Mr Masendeke.

He explained the concept saying reduced tillage had an impact of reducing moisture loss from inner soil layers and improves the soil structure in the long term, resulting in improved water infiltration.

Zero or limited tillage is encouraged.

He stressed the need for moisture.

“The most limiting factor in crop growth is moisture.

There is need therefore to create a micro catchment to minimize run-off evaporation and keep moisture available,” he said.

This according to him can be made possible by the presence of a mulch that minimises the impact of intense rainfall on the soil thereby further reducing water run-off and soil erosion.

The mulch also minimises compaction by intense rainfall, reduces temperature fluctuations at the soil surface and also smothers weeds.

Mr Masendeke said the inclusion of legume-based rotations helps to improve soil fertility, reduces pest infestations and minimises total crop loss during severe weather occurrences while emphasis should also be put on nutrients where organic or non-organic fertilisers could be applied.

He added that there was an encouraging buy-in of the Pfumvudza concept from the communities saying it has come in as a game-changer in the country’s agriculture where food insecurity would be a thing of the past as it provide farmers with climate change adaptation techniques that are environmentally friendly.