Communal farmers bear the brunt of climate change

04 Mar, 2018 - 06:03 0 Views
Communal farmers bear the brunt of climate change

The Sunday News

Vusumuzi Dube, Sunday News Reporter
MR John Mabuda has grown maize in his one hectare piece of land for the past 30 or so years in Chirumanzu communal lands in the Midlands Province.
Growing maize has been part of his life and an integral part of his socio-economic activity. In the late 1980s, when Mr Mabuda ventured into full-time farming, after leaving his formal job in Chiredzi, every harvest would get him 25 or more bags of maize.

But since the turn of the millennium, Mr Mabuda says things have changed, not only for him but for other communal farmers in Chirumanzu and the rest of the country.

Now he will be lucky to get even five bags per hectare.
Mr Mabuda is among thousands of small-holder farmers not only in Chirumanzu District, but across the country, who have been hard-hit by the erratic weather patterns, due to global warming.

Faced with the effects of climate change, particularly on crop yields, most farmers are in a dilemma, not sure of what to do next, as their sole source of livelihood and food security is under threat.
“Things have changed, it is very clear,” said a distraught Mr Mabuda.

“The majority of people here have no resources to cope with the situation. If we don’t adapt to the changes most of us will not survive. I remember how communal farming was viable in the early 1980s and I managed to send all my children to boarding school after selling grain to the Grain Marketing Board. Now that cannot happen, it’s in the past; the yields are hardly enough just to feed one’s family throughout the year. We have to supplement with food aide from NGOs and Government. That’s the reality we are facing as communal farmers and it’s frightening.”

Farmers in Chirumanzu District are now relying heavily on the Hama-Mavhaire irrigation scheme since their communal fields are no longer yielding enough to sustain their livelihoods.

This is evidence of how irrigation, although expensive, can be one of the many antidotes to climate change effects. Experts in climate change have predicted that owing to climate change, rainfall patterns will change more extremely from one season to another, with more droughts, floods and intense rainfall patterns expected to be the order of the day.

Such extreme weather conditions spell doom, especially for communal farmers who solely rely on direct rainfall for their farming activities.
In previous years, Zimbabwe and other countries in Africa have experienced short rain seasons and sometimes floods as the effects of climate change manifest themselves.

“We no longer know when to plant. The rain season keeps shifting and the rains have also been scarce during the start of the seasons in recent years. If you choose to plant early the crops are likely to be affected by the dry spells which are quick to follow as a result of the short rain season. It becomes even worse if one opts to plant late, the rains would likely stop before the crops mature,” Mr Mabuda said.

The effects can be far less felt by commercial farmers, who have enough infrastructure such as irrigation, to cushion them against rainfall shortages, short rainfall seasons and floods among other results of climate change.

Climate change expert and lecturer at the Midlands State University Mr Raymond Mugandani noted that rural dwellers, who since time immemorial have been relying on subsistence farming, were the worst affected by climate change. He called on the Government and other stakeholders to come up with mitigation strategies that ensure communal farmers are cushioned from the effects of climate change.

“There is no doubt that the effects of climate change have manifested and obviously communal farmers are the ones who are hardest hit. They have no cover or cushion against the effects and this makes their predicament far worse.

“Communal farming heavily relies on rainfall and the fact that climate change has tended to affect rainfall patterns, it goes without saying that communal farmers are the ones directly affected by the phenomenon and they bear the brunt.

“There is a need for the relevant authorities to come up with strategies that ensure communal farmers, who form the largest chunk of our population, are cushioned,” he said.

Climate change has changed communal farming, which at some point was close to being a commercial enterprise as farmers could derive financial gain from it. The practice has since been turned into something that is even far less than subsistence in nature and purpose, and farmers can barely rely on it for survival.

Against a backdrop of such negative developments, poverty has set in precipitating negative trends like high school dropout rates and lack of money to pay for health care services and food.

Researchers have asserted that by 2050, average crop yield in Sub-Saharan Africa will go down by between 30 percent and 50 percent.
This paints a gloomy picture for the region’s food security and calls for a regional and more integrated approach in mitigating the impact of climate change.

Various strategies to mitigate against climate change effects have been proffered, and among them are shifting from growing traditional crops such as maize to more drought resistant grains such as sorghum and other small grains.

Another climate change expert and PHD student at Cape Town University, Mr Nkulumo Zinyengere, weighed in saying: “With climate change people are at risk of increased drought and other extreme events such as floods, hurricanes and cyclones. Those who are already experiencing poverty, live in vulnerable settings and have limited access to resources to help them cope with increased disasters are the ones at most risk.

“Solutions are within reach but there should be political will to accept responsibility and accountability for actions that create hunger and hardships for people who are already in precarious situations.

“A lot needs to be done to cushion people against the effects of climate change, especially in the area of food security. Access to improved inputs, fertiliser, heat tolerant seed varieties and access to timely weather forecast and extension services can go a long way in reducing the impact of climate change,” said Mr Zinyenger.

Communal farmers look up to Government and its climate change response strategy as their only hope in the wake of ravaging effects of climate change that continue to stare them in the face, threatening their livelihoods.

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