Zimbabwe’s Mopani Worms Disappearing from Rural Diets
By Ignatius Banda*
PLUMTREE, Zimbabwe, Mar 23, 2012 (IPS) – Job Mthombeni loves traditional
food. One of his favourite culinary delights is Mopani worms, referred to
locally as amacimbi, which means caterpillar in Ndebele. At an early age he
understood the nutritional value of the worm, which is found in his rural
hometown of Plumtree, in southwestern Zimbabwe.
The Mopani worm is the protein-rich caterpillar of the Emperor moth, which
can supplement any diet.
But as the lack of rain continues to cause havoc with the harvests in this
southern African nation, it is now also affecting the supply of Mopani
worms. And 49-year-old Mthombeni is a concerned man.
“There are no Mopani worms this year,” he complained. Already this year’s
low harvest in Plumtree has meant that he has to live off the groceries sent
to him by his children working in neighbouring Botswana.
“The Mopani worms I have tasted this year are not from my area. We always
thought things like the Mopani worms would always be there, but look now…The
poor rains have chased away our food,” he told IPS.
Zimbabwe has experienced poor rains over the past few years. Though the
Zimbabwe Meteorological Services Department had predicted rainfall would
peak from October to December 2011, only parts of the country experienced
heavy rains, while southwestern Zimbabwe conversely had low rainfall during
this time.
This past week, rain fell across the country. But it has come long after
farmers planted their crop, and much of the maize harvest was destroyed as a
result.
The situation in Zimbabwe is typical of the region, as countries in the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) have been hit with wildly
uneven rainfall patterns this rainy season. Madagascar and Mozambique have
had a deluge of rain, thanks to Cyclone Giovanna, while countries like
Mauritius and Zimbabwe have had low or no rainfall this season.
Bradwell Garanganga, from the SADC Climate Services Centre, explained that
there is a finite amount of water available, and when it rains heavily in
one area, the water is drawn from somewhere else.
“The amount of water that is available is virtually constant so, if it rains
hard someplace, it means there is somewhere where the rain is not occurring.
That, in summary, is what has been occurring in the SADC region in terms of
rainfall,” he said.
“This particular year has not been too good … If you were to draw a line
from Gwanda, in Zimbabwe, to Francistown, in Botswana, all the way back to
the southern part of Zimbabwe, that area has been extremely dry,” he said.
Mopani worms thrive on fertile conditions and gorge themselves on lush green
vegetation. But the disappearance of their environment could mean thousands
of villagers in Plumtree, and other areas of the country that have seen poor
rains, will be deprived of a vital source of nutrition in the years to come.
“It’s not only about the loss of vegetation, and the declining numbers of
Mopani worms. It is also about the loss of a major source of protein in the
diet of many rural and urban people as well as a loss of income,” said
Sobona Mtisi, a climate change researcher with the Overseas Development
Institute, which is also leading the Zimbabwean government’s climate change
policy formulation with the Climate Knowledge Development Network.
“This has adverse implications for people’s health and income. Are we going
to see an increase of diseases linked to a low-protein diet?” Mtisi asked.
While the rainy season has always brought with it an abundance of culinary
choices for rural communities, it also provides a boost for rural economies.
Wendy Zulu is one of the rural women traders who earn their living selling
Mopani worms. She makes seasonal trips to the city of Bulawayo, where she
sells a variety of wares. But it is the proceeds from her sales of Mopani
worms that form a substantial part of her income.
“I am yet to make the trip since the rainy season was supposed to begin late
last year,” Zulu said.
In the past, because of their economic value, when there was an abundance of
Mopani worms, farmers and land owners would charge rural women traders like
Zulu a fee to harvest them. Now, because of the lack of rainfall, there are
hardly any to be seen.
“With poor rains, it has meant there is no green vegetation for these
creatures. So I just have to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks,
even months,” Zulu told IPS. Many miles away in Bulawayo, consumers like
Moffat Bancinyane, who over the years have enjoyed Mopani worms as an
affordable culinary preference, can only wonder why they have become scarce.
“You can never understand why a thing like amacimbi can be out of stock.
Come on, these things grow on trees,” Bancinyane said after being told by a
vendor outside a municipal beer hall that Mopani worms were not available.
“It is true what they say about the rains, that they give life in the most
unexpected forms,” Bancinyane said.
The scarcity of Mopani worms could just be an indication of a deeper crisis
spurred by climate change, Mtisi said.
In 2005, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that
climate change would result in increasing aridity in southern Africa, one of
the most populous parts of the continent. It also predicted that food
production in countries like Zimbabwe would halve by 2020.
Despite their scarcity, Mopani worms remain big business in other parts of
southern African. In Botswana it is a multi-million dollar industry, and
South Africa harvests up to 1.6 million kilogrammes of Mopani worms
annually.
*Additional reporting by Zukiswa Zimela in Johannesburg. (END)