Local groups and the UN help Zim farmers amid ongoing drought
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Bulawayo — After long-running drought slashed their harvests, small-scale farmers in Lupane, western Zimbabwe, decided to switch away from irrigating their fields by flooding them, which wastes huge amounts of water.
They tested out more precise drip-irrigation that saves water by delivering it to plants efficiently, while monitoring soil moisture and temperature with pressure sensors.
Those practices have enabled farmers in the Tshongokwe irrigation scheme in Matabeleland North to grow vegetables and adapt to more challenging climate conditions.
“We started growing cabbages at a larger scale last May,” said Soneni Dube, chair of the scheme’s committee. “We had lost hope in farming as drought had dried our main source of water, which is Tshongokwe Dam.”
With support from local groups and international agencies, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), yields on the scheme’s 24ha have improved and most of its 63 member farmers have seen their incomes rise, Dube said.
“We produced meaningful profits from the 2ha of irrigated cabbage,” she said. “We paid school fees for our children [and] bought food, seed and fertilisers for our next crops.”
In March, the international Green Climate Fund (GCF), which helps developing countries adapt to climate shifts and adopt clean energy, approved a $26.6m grant for a programme to scale up this kind of climate-resilient agriculture in Zimbabwe.
Due to start in September and run through to 2027, the GCF-backed programme aims to fund about 20 climate-smart irrigation schemes in southern Zimbabwe, similar to Tshongokwe, as well as setting up weather stations and 250 field schools for farmers.
It will also equip three of the country’s main agricultural training colleges with upgraded technology to boost research. It will be co-financed by Zimbabwe’s government with just more than $20m, while the UNDP has committed $1.2m.
Shrinking rainfall
The programme plans to benefit 2.3-million people, especially women, in a country where climate-change impacts have helped drive more than 7.7-million Zimbabweans into hunger, the UNDP said.
The work will focus on three ,semi-arid provinces of southern Zimbabwe — Manicaland, Masvingo and Matabeleland South — which are particularly vulnerable to global warming. Here, rainfall is predicted to decrease by 15% and runoff by 20%, leading to higher food shortages, higher food prices, and drought-related livestock deaths, according to the project document.
The region has experienced increasing temperatures since the 1950s, with a decline in annual precipitation and an increase in mid-season dry spells, coupled with droughts ...
They tested out more precise drip-irrigation that saves water by delivering it to plants efficiently, while monitoring soil moisture and temperature with pressure sensors.
Those practices have enabled farmers in the Tshongokwe irrigation scheme in Matabeleland North to grow vegetables and adapt to more challenging climate conditions.
“We started growing cabbages at a larger scale last May,” said Soneni Dube, chair of the scheme’s committee. “We had lost hope in farming as drought had dried our main source of water, which is Tshongokwe Dam.”
With support from local groups and international agencies, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), yields on the scheme’s 24ha have improved and most of its 63 member farmers have seen their incomes rise, Dube said.
“We produced meaningful profits from the 2ha of irrigated cabbage,” she said. “We paid school fees for our children [and] bought food, seed and fertilisers for our next crops.”
In March, the international Green Climate Fund (GCF), which helps developing countries adapt to climate shifts and adopt clean energy, approved a $26.6m grant for a programme to scale up this kind of climate-resilient agriculture in Zimbabwe.
Due to start in September and run through to 2027, the GCF-backed programme aims to fund about 20 climate-smart irrigation schemes in southern Zimbabwe, similar to Tshongokwe, as well as setting up weather stations and 250 field schools for farmers.
It will also equip three of the country’s main agricultural training colleges with upgraded technology to boost research. It will be co-financed by Zimbabwe’s government with just more than $20m, while the UNDP has committed $1.2m.
Shrinking rainfall
The programme plans to benefit 2.3-million people, especially women, in a country where climate-change impacts have helped drive more than 7.7-million Zimbabweans into hunger, the UNDP said.
The work will focus on three ,semi-arid provinces of southern Zimbabwe — Manicaland, Masvingo and Matabeleland South — which are particularly vulnerable to global warming. Here, rainfall is predicted to decrease by 15% and runoff by 20%, leading to higher food shortages, higher food prices, and drought-related livestock deaths, according to the project document.
The region has experienced increasing temperatures since the 1950s, with a decline in annual precipitation and an increase in mid-season dry spells, coupled with droughts ...
