As the country is grappling with a challenging summer cropping season marked by the threat of drought, the agricultural sector finds itself on the frontline of adversity. With climate change exacerbating weather extremes, citizens across the country are grappling with uncertainty and mounting challenges.
Communal farmers, who form the backbone of the country’s agricultural economy, are particularly vulnerable. “For us, agriculture is not just a livelihood, it’s our way of life we had hoped that there will be plenty of rains this season but with each passing season, the challenges seem to multiply. We struggle to predict the weather and when drought hits, it’s devastating,” said Thomas Zambuko a maize farmer from Mashonaland East.
The impact of the impending drought is not limited to crop production alone, livestock farmers are also feeling the pinch. “Grazing areas are running dry and without adequate feed and water, livestock health suffers, leading to reduced productivity and income losses for farmers,” said Lazarus Chikuvire a cattle farmer from Beatrice Anna Brazier a climate expert attributed the drought to the El Nino phenomena and the resultant high temperatures.
“The looming drought is exacerbated by climate change and was caused by the El Nino phenomena. The temperatures were very high and that made the drought worse than it would have normally been and climate change is likely to be the cause of those high temperatures,” said Brazier.
She highlighted that the drought has socio-economic impacts on communities in the country.
“Crop failure is likely to impact on people’s livelihoods, people will probably resort to selling assets in order to be able to buy food and pay for other household expenses. In some communities people are already having some fewer meals a day, and this is likely to be worse in dry areas like Matebeleland North,” she said despite the challenges, Brazier said there are mitigatory strategies against future droughts.
“There are a lot of strategies that used to be practiced such as the Zunde raMambo where communities would support each other and traditional leaders would make provisions to support households that were struggling unfortunately, due to the breakdown of these services the social safety nets are no longer widespread but they still exist in some communities and these can be built upon,” Brazier said. She stressed the need for cooperation among communities by adhering to traditional rules about natural resources management for communities to be resilient to the impacts of climate change.
