Women fight climate change

04 Sep, 2016 - 07:09 0 Views

The Sunday News

THE Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development has set aside funds to be channelled towards empowering women to come up with climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.

In a telephone interview, Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Nyasha Chikwinya said her ministry has put the issue of women and climate change as top priority, as women who constitute the majority, according to ZimStat, were also hard hit by the devastating effects of climate change.

Minister Chikwinya said women constitute 68 percent of the farmers in the country but due to climate change they have been failing to increase productivity.

“I am personally touched by effects of climate change to women,” she said, adding: “The Ministry has set aside funds to assist women on how they can adapt and formulate mitigation measures. Women have been doing well in agriculture where they have managed to ensure that we remain productive despite going through difficult times where climate change has affected their source of livelihood.”

Minister Chikwinya who could not reveal the amount of money which has been set aside said district officers within her ministry will be responsible for spearheading the programme which will begin this month.

“We have information which shows that women are the mostly affected gender. Women are travelling for about 10 kilometres to fetch water and on that issue I had a discussion with Cde Muchinguri (Water, Environment and Climate Change Minister) who indicated that most water bodies are now very far but they have since mobilised funds to look for rigs that can go deeper.”

She added that the ministry’s aim was to ensure that women walk short sentences hence more boreholes would be drilled so that water is accessible at shorter distances.

The ministry’s move is in line with the Government’s call for ministries and developmental partners to put in place robust measures to address challenges posed by climate change as the country’s economy is mostly based on agriculture.

Studies on climate change adaptation in the agricultural sector has shown that the focus should be on strategies to conserve moisture, promote conservation agriculture, improve short season seed varieties, especially for maize, increase use of drought resistant small grains, among others.

The Government has been promoting investment in irrigation and water supply infrastructure in order to raise productivity in the local communities.

Investing in irrigation infrastructure will go a long way in addressing the adverse effects of the climate change and also enhance productivity in the agricultural sector.

 

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