Shurugwi villagers turn to small grains to avert hunger

August 14, 2015 in National, News

TAKAENDESA Chifambi (61) used to shun growing small grains in favour of the more appealing maize crop.

BY STEPHEN CHADENGA

“I never appreciated small grains, maize was the obvious crop,” Chifambi, who lives in Mukandapi in Shurugwi, told NewsDay.

For decades, he continued to grow maize, despite the crop not being suitable for the low rainfall rural set-up.

But courtesy of the small grains project introduced by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), Chifambi, like many other subsistence farmers in rural areas, has now embraced such crops as sorghum, cow peas and groundnuts.

The marginal areas of Zimbabwe, particularly natural Regions III, IV and V, are characterised by high temperatures and erratic rains.

According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET), prolonged dry spells and erratic seasonal rainfall in the southern parts of the country, including Matabeleland North, and parts of Midlands and Manicaland provinces, resulted in severe crop wilting and loss in the 2014/2015 harvest season.

“Growing small grains is one of the possible potential successful approaches for improving household food security,” small grains specialist Chipo Zishiri wrote on the ministry of agriculture’s website. Despite the many advantages provided by small grains towards food security, cultivation of the crops has been on decline every year.

“Bird damage is one of the main challenges small grains production faces especially for white seeded types,” Zishiri said.

She said other factors that contribute to the limited production of small grains are that they are low yielding compared to maize and little attention has been paid to improve the breeding and genetic improvement of the crops.

Marketing opportunities for crops and unmechanised methods in the production of small grains were also cited as hindering their cultivation.

But despite these setbacks, 400 families in four out 21 wards in Shurugwi district are benefiting from the small grains project.

“Wards 1, 8, 13 and 14 have created a food safety net in the drought-prone district,” EMA Shurugwi district environmental officer Severino Kangara said.

Kangara said the families grow red and white sorghum, cow peas and groundnuts. He said the environmental agency provides the villagers with small grains and other inputs such as fertilisers in the cultivation stage.

But once the families in one ward harvest the crop, they give the grains to the next area and it becomes a revolving scheme.

Crispen Hamba, the councillor for ward 8, said villagers in the area faced food shortages due to poor rains.

“Before this project, people ran out of food by August every year, but now we can reach the next farming season with food from the small grains,” Hamba said.

Although the farmers say they now have sufficient food throughout the year as a result of the small grains project, they pleaded with government to provide them with tractors and irrigation equipment.

If the production of small grains becomes a success, not only will it guarantee food security but will also be a source of improved nutrition as the crops are rich in carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals such as potassium, phosphorous and calcium.

Early this year, Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Wonder Chabikwa was on record saying there was a vast improvement in small grains production in the country.

“This season there was an increased uptake of small grains. The rainy season started late and the dry spell experienced over the past weeks in some areas did not affect the small grains hence yields are expected to improve,” he said.

“Small grains producers are doing particularly well and some have even adopted irrigation schemes to boost production.”

Government has been on a drive to resuscitate irrigation schemes across the country.

“At the moment there is a market for everything and by far the biggest seller is groundnuts followed by soya beans, millet and sunflower,” he said.

“The problem that we have at the moment is that some farmers have been producing grains of varied quality which at times proves difficult to sell.