Calvin Manika
THE 2020/2021 farming season has given Zimbabweans hope after three years of consecutive droughts. Hwange which lies in ecological region four has been relying on small grains but with the effects of climate change it has not been sustainable for some time.
Villagers in Hwange district had for years been turned to a charity case of donors. World Vision supports villagers through food hand-outs and money on monthly basis and also the government provides grain through social welfare.
With the introduction of climate proofed Presidential Input Scheme popularly known as ‘Pfumvudza’ which promote conservation agriculture accompanied with good rains villagers in Gurambila in Hwange are under high expectations.
According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), warming at twice the global rate, Southern Africa is one of the epicentres of global climate change and through the Malabo Declaration, African heads of state declared that 25 million farmers should adopt climate resilient production systems by 2025 to protect their food and nutrition security and livelihoods.
“Pfumvudza means a new season of increased productivity it is a season of producing more on less land and with less resources; a season of climate proofing our agriculture through the adoption of Conservation Agriculture,” said the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, John Basera.
Sibanda, a villager of Gurambila, in ward 14, Hwange is optimistic of a good harvest. “I am hopeful that this year I will have a good harvest, not only for myself but if you look in the fields everyone is doing well. We thank the government for the Pfumvudza programme,” said Melusi Sibanda.
Foundations for Farming, an organisation which provides training, education and advocacy on conservation agriculture last year had set a target to train 1.8 million farmers in Conservation Agriculture (CA) by October 2020 in time for the 2020/21 cropping season. One million farmers had already been trained in the country.
“Pfumvudza was developed to answer the following question. “How much land is required to feed a family”? Using all the Foundations for Farming principles and assuming that a family would require a bucket of maize per week to provide their staple diet, the following model was developed. To fill a bucket with shelled maize you would require 56 cobs weighing 300 grams each. If each maize plant produced at least one of these we would require 56 plants,” a report by Foundations for Farming noted.
During the recent visit to Gurambila village, it was observed that fields were weed free and villagers have not more than 1 plot to start with. With the incessant rains currently showering Hwange, fields are green and farmers are continually engaging their area agricultural extension officers.
Gerald Banda told this publication that: “The government gave us maize seed and fertilizer, and we are continually receiving education from our agricultural officers. But mostly, we thank God for the good rains. Hwange is a hot area but this year we seem to be doing well.”
Pfumbudza, a new government initiative is aimed at increasing farmers’ resilience and ensure food self-sufficiency for the nation. It is hoped that the project will address the problems of low levels of productivity and production, making the country’s farmers and households more resilient to climate shocks and ultimately ensuring food security in Zimbabwe. The scheme also offers real potential for commercialisation by encouraging smallholder farmers to produce surplus food to earn a regular income.
Foundations for Farming went on say that: “In Africa it is very safe to assume that most rural farmers attempt to farm as much as 2Ha of land every year, and yet are still unable to produce an adequate supply of food to sustain themselves. To alleviate this many people believe that the answer is to either farm more land or to mechanise. Unfortunately neither of these options work as larger land means even poorer standards and no increase in production. Mechanisation is generally out of the budget range of most families, and comes with many hidden costs.”
What makes Pfumvudza unique is the size of the plot used, at just 16m x 39m the plot is small enough to easily prepare, small enough to manage with mulch, small enough to weed, and even small enough to water by hand with harvested rainwater in the event of a mid-season dry spell or drought.
The concept has been successful in helping farmers to produce grains including maize, sorghum and millet, while it also encourages the rotation of legumes such as beans, ground nuts or cowpeas. Zimbabwe’s efforts are certainly a step in the right direction, according to Lewis Hove, Head of FAO’s Resilience Hub for Southern Africa, and SUCASA Coordinator, “By working more closely with our partners, that is the private sector, governments and local authorities, resource and development partners, and NGOs, we’ll be in a much better position to help farmers incorporate CA practices into their farming.”
