Jeffrey Gogo Climate Story
Medicine Dambakurima is relieved the rains took a sustained break in the last week for the first time in two months.
Too much rain in the flood-prone lands of Dambakurima Village, Muzarabani, had risked severe crop losses, much worse a repeat of last summer’s bareness.
“There has been so much rain our fields are water-logged, affecting the growth of most crops,” lamented the 53-year old village head, who has a hectare under maize and one-acre of sorghum in one of Zimbabwe’s driest, high risk regions.
A torrent of rain has left much of Zimbabwe in flood since December, washing away soil in some areas,
Maize production fell sharply last summer during one of the worst droughts in years, with under 50 percent of the 2 million tonnes annual requirement delivered. But harvests are expected to be much higher this year.
Since 2000, maize output has dropped due to a combination of structural changes in the agriculture sector, and climatic factors.
This year, top foreign currency earner, tobacco, is likely to be affected after heavy rains caused delays in curing or prompted false ripening, according to industry regulator, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board.
Nearly 200 million kg of the crop were produced in 2016.
Too much rain has also brought in attacks by pests – the army worm – causing major damage to crops across Zimbabwe, and in several southern African countries, authorities say, although pesticides are being issued and are available.
Now, as climate-linked extreme events such as drought and floods become common experiences in Zimbabwe in recent decades, experts believe there are better ways to farming that reduce crop losses and help small farmers cope with the rapid changes in climates.
In 2016, Dambakurima’s entire crop was a complete write-off, as an El Nino-triggered drought took its toll.
Since June last year, the father of nine has been forced to rely on food handouts of at least a 50kg bag of maize each month from Government and other donor organisations.
But things did not have to be that way. Agro-ecologist, Franz Ulrich Fischer, who has experience working in southern Africa, told The Herald Business that several factors including population growth, changes in land use and deforestation had worsened the impact of extreme events, but damage could be curtailed.
“A key to addressing droughts and floods is looking closer to the soils and soil life,” Ulrich-Fischer implored, by email.
“These days the soil have less organic matter and less organism (worms, bacteria, fungi, roots, etc), so the storage capacity of water is reduced and also the infiltration rate is much less.”
He continued: “A good farmer in a tropical setting would always try to keep every rain drop on his/her farm, that is, it should go into the soil that it can be used by the plants or recharge the groundwater which would feed springs and streams.
“If the water goes into the soil, it will not cause erosion and it is available to keep the soil life active to produce organic matter and maintain fertility. So farmers have to look, in particular at the management of water and how to feed soil and its life with organic matter.”
Different Aura
Synthetic fertilisers and most pesticides reduce organic matter in soils and thus increase the impact of drought and heavy rains, he said, adding that solutions could lie in permaculture (sustainable self-reliant farming practices), organic farming and water-harvesting.
Although the late Zephaniah Phiri’s innovative exploits with water harvesting have been replicated by farmers the world over, only a small number of farmers in Zimbabwe harvest rainwater.
Phiri, an ordinary uneducated farmer who died two years ago, is considered as one of the world’s greatest agro-ecologist, trapping rainwater in trenches and dams since the 1960s, that helped boost yields at his small farm in Zvishavane at a time drought or floods were wreaking havoc in other parts of Zimbabwe.
But much of the rain seen so far this season goes to waste, or like village head Dambukurima, watch helplessly as the waters swamp the fields, battering crop growth.
The big difference though is that there will be a harvest.
“We know that though the rain has been much, there can be no hunger with too much rain,” Mr Dambakurima said, expectantly.
He has to do more, however, says Charles Dhewa, agriculture expert and chief executive Knowledge Transfer Africa, an agriculture research firm.
“We have perfected the art of complaining against Mother Nature,” he cautioned.
“Farmers and policy makers are currently complaining about pests and diseases caused by too much rainfall yet it’s clear that such challenges are the other side of good seasons.”
Proposing a more rapid approach to climate action that includes climate-smart agriculture, Dhewa said: “taking advantage of this year’s abundant rainfall means we have to move from the victim mentality to visionaries. We can’t give floods the same aura given to earthquakes.”
From a harvestless 2016, Mr Dambakurima of Muzarabani expects to fill up half a dozen cattle-drawn carts (roughly a tonne or so) with maize this year, should the rain behave and the invading armyworm, which eats at the maize leaf, is controlled more effectively.
“This (armyworm) is a new pest we have never dealt with before. It has destroyed huge areas, but we have applied some chemicals received from Government to control its spread,” he said.
Countrywide, authorities have yet to carry out a full assessment of the crop situation, though the armyworm attack combined with too much rain could reduce harvests for a minority of farmers.
A seasoned agriculture extension worker told The Herald Business that: “The yield is most likely going to be reduced in those fields which are water logged but that is not going to affect most farmers. We will get a clear picture after our crop and livestock assessment end of February.”
Zimbabwe expects to become self-reliant in maize production in 2017, ending many years of failure. A programme by Government which targets high performing farmers aimed to put some 400 000 hectares under maize, with a potential yield of 2 million tonnes – enough to feed Zimbabweans and their livestock for a year.
Wonder Chabikwa, who heads the 25 000-member Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union expressed some concern over too much rain hurting crop output, but maintained the yield in 2017 will be significantly improved from a year ago.
“It’s been a long time since we have received so much rain, but farmer capacity utilisation has also improved vastly, thanks to Government and private sector interventions,” he said.
God is faithful.