Farmers devise resilience strategies amid climate crisis

IT is afternoon, and Panganai Munhanga, a smallholder farmer in Mutare’s Zimta Park, is clearing part of his land, located on a marsh, to extend his banana field.

NATHAN GUMA/DELIGHT GUMA

During a normal farming season, this land is swampy and waterlogged, but due to the El Niño-induced drought, characterised by high temperatures and low rainfall, the half-baked black soil is still showing signs of antecedent moisture.

“This black soil is good for bananas,” he says. “The sun has no effect on the banana trees.

Their roots are strong and have a longer lifespan. The small well I have is enough to keep them up for a long time.”

Munhanga is part of the many smallholder farmers across the country who are embracing drought resistant crops to avert the devastating effects of the drought which is projected to leave almost eight million people in need of food aid.

Close by is a heap of brown-leaved banana saplings for transplanting.

“As long as the roots are not tampered with, the saplings will grow well. They can even outperform the ones planted before them,” says a smiling Munhanga.

“The sun and drought are out of the question. With the right inputs, I am going to expand the field. I am currently looking for inputs, particulalry fertilisers, to speed up growth. With fertilisers, bananas will be ripen in three or four months.”

“I have cultivated a sample on a small piece of land and managed to get reasonable income. I believe if I grow them over a large piece of land, there will be more income.”

Bananas do not require large amounts of water.

According to research by India’s Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), the total water requirement of banana plants is about 900-1 200 millimetres for its entire life cycle, which can be met through natural rainfall as well as supplementary irrigation.

Another farmer, Memory Chayambika from Chimanimani Hot Springs, some 240 kilometres southeast of Zimbabwe, says she will also continue growing bananas and small grains after much of her large grain crops have been devastated by the ravaging drought.

“I cultivate bananas, beans and maize. Beans and maize did not perform well, even bananas,” says Chayambika who operates under the Zimbabwe Smallholder and Organic Farmers Forum (Zimsoff).

Zimsoff is an organisation that seeks to promote livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe using sustainable and viable ecological agriculture, while influencing policies and public awareness towards agro ecology and smallholder farmers’ rights.

“Despite that, the bananas performed better than other crops unlike the previous seasons. For instance, I used to get six 50 kilogrammes of beans per hectare. Maize, I would get a tonne and sell them in areas like Gweru. I do not think everything is going to remain the same. The seasons are shifting.”

Other areas across the country are now taking a collective approach to promoting resilience against climate-related shocks.

For instance, in Zvishavane’s Mutambi Village, all farmers now grow small grains only as large grain crops like maize are failing.

Eddias Shumba from Mutambi in Chief Mazvihwa’s area of Zvishavane has aborted growing large grains for small grain crops.  

“Mutambi is known for growing small grains since we are in [agro-ecological] region four. Even our village head encourages us to grow small grains such as rapoko, finger millet, sorghum, peanuts, roundnuts, groundnuts, and maize, especially the old breeds like

yellow and red maize,” said Shumba, a farmer under Zimsoff.

Shumba says he has not been hard hit by the drought compared to farmers from nearby villages.

“I was not really affected by the El Niño-induced drought. I was not severely affected by the El Niño conditions. Yes, I did not get the desired yield, but my crops performed well. My hybrid seeds were the ones that were largely affected,” he told The NewsHawks.   

“Last season was better, I got three tonnes of sorghum, half a tonne of zviyo, two tonnes of

rapoko and six tonnes of groundnuts. This season, I got less, and made only a tonne of sorghum and 100 kilogrammes of rapoko. I am yet to thrash millet and have only reserved groundnuts for seed. This is better as farmers that produced hybrid seeds did not reap at all.”

Ngoni Chikowe, a Zimsoff technical officer based in Mutoko, says his organisation has been encouraging water harvesting, and a migration from exotic to traditional grains and, to promote climate resilience.

“We have been encouraging farmers to use drought resistant crops that are resilient to drought. We have the likes of finger millet, sorghum, pearl millet and roundnuts,” Chikowe told The NewsHawks.

“These are some of the crops that we are encouraging farmers to grow because climate change is not reversing. It will continue to be even worse. So, with these kinds of crops, you can see that some farmers have a better yield than those who practised traditional farming.

“On water harvesting, we have a technique on how to harvest water across the country. In Mutoko, we have been trapping water since our area is mountainous. Some of it we have been storing underground. So, we have been encouraging farmers to use such methods to promote resilience.”

Climate change expert Kundai Ngwenya says farmers ought to consider water harvesting as a key factor in promoting resilience.

“Most agricultural activity is rain-fed. When rain patterns change, this means that there are also going to be fluctuations in terms of the harvest or the expected harvest,” Kundai Ngwenya, African Union Economic Social and Cultural Council (Ecosocc) cluster chair for Infrastructure and Energy, told The NewsHawks.

“So you find that the most significant threat now is failure to predict the unpredictable weather patterns. So now if you look at the summer cropping seasons, you will find that there have been false starts to the 2020, 2022 to 2023 summer cropping season. Crops had to die and wilt.”

While irrigation has continued to be of importance, Ngwena said farmers ought to start small.

“Water harvesting is one of the strategies farmers can use to promote climate resilience. If you cannot drill a borehole, then you start small, depending on the scale of operation. But you can start small by just digging these wells, what we call mugodhi, and then you can pump water from there to a certain piece of land.

“These can work for some, for something like an acre. There is also the irrigation system. But now because we are also having power challenges, it has to be solar powered.”

A farmers’ grouping, the Women in Agriculture Union (WAU), already has the foresight to encourage women farmers to take up irrigation.

WAU, a consortium of women from various agrarian organisations aimed at identifying gender gaps and disparities in the agriculture sector, has been using innovative methods to promote water harvesting.

“In terms of climate change, we promote more of conservation farming methods and on water harvesting, we have been encouraging women so they have irrigation,” said Olga Nhari, WAU director.

“We have come up with initiatives like ‘mukando’ whereby they make contributions to acquire machinery such as centre pivots and boreholes so that they can have boreholes drilled. We are also encouraging them to have greenhouses so that they can manage to produce all-year-round.

“We have also partnered with companies, some of which are into greenhouse construction, and those that are in irrigation equipment so that we have discounted prices for women to get the machinery while paying in instalments.”

For Munhanga, bananas are his crop of choice, with the ability to give him money all-year round in spite of the drought.

“I hope to expand my farming venture so I can end up delivering bananas to various parts of the country,” he says.