The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
ALTHOUGH the reality of the subject of climate change is slowly getting appreciation in the country’s communities, with its devastating effects getting more apparent, calls are getting louder to include communal farmers who are working to ensure food security as the country strains towards vision 2030.
Cyclones, heat waves, floods, recurrent and extreme droughts as well as crop and animal diseases linked to variations in weather patterns all form an important part of the climate change matrix but very few people in the country’s rural areas are fully aware of the causes of their catastrophe. Although little can be done now to stop the phenomenon of climate change, educating the country’s rural communities that are usually worst affected remains one of the most important service the country can undertake to at least lessen its effects.
The appreciation in the country that most of its national food stocks is contributed by communal farmers make them an important holder of stake in such programmes to ensure they maximise production, adapt and mitigate against the effects of climate change.
Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Hon Mangaliso Ndlovu said while it was true that the subject of climate change was still foreign in other communities it was work in progress by the Government and its partners in ensuring everyone was taken on board.
Last Friday, delivering his keynote address and launch statement for Zimbabwe’s climate change strategy documents which are the national climate change learning strategy; climate change mainstreaming module for development planning; national adaptation planning process communication strategy; and green climate fund country programme, the minister confirmed that ignorant and marginalised groups were most affected by climate change, hence the need to educate them.
He said climate change was not limited to Zimbabwe or Africa alone but was affecting all regions of the globe. But some places, such as Africa, he said were more vulnerable to climate change’s devastating effects than others.
“It is true that not every community appreciates climate change although its effects are manifesting themselves especially in agricultural productivity with extreme weather conditions and recurrent droughts. We are trying to take farmers and everyone on board.
“Climate change does not affect agriculture alone. Its effects are far reaching and almost every economic sub-sector is affected. We are therefore reaching out to everyone with mitigation and adaptation measures,” said Minister Ndlovu.
He said the issue of food security and inclusion of communal farmers was particularly true because of the country and the continent’s very high dependency on agriculture where studies have shown temperature increases and recurrent droughts.
“That the country’s economy is heavily dependent on agriculture is given. Increases in temperature and rainfall reduction associated with climate change is however, projected to reduce agricultural production and increase the demand for more land and water to compensate for climate stresses,” he said.
He urged the media to report more on climate change and its effects so that word reaches all the corners of the country.
“Climate-induced extreme events such as floods and droughts leave us with the task of enhancing our preparedness and ensuring that our socio-economic sectors are climate-proofed. Zimbabwe’s vulnerability to changes in the climate system is worsened by limited climate change knowledge and awareness among the citizenry.
“This is further exacerbated by the over-reliance on climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, forestry and water resources. It is therefore critical to enhance climate change knowledge and awareness to enable citizens to participate from a well-informed perspective in the fight against this scourge.
“We appeal to the media to conscientise the public on climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation as well as educating our societies on preparedness against all types of weather and rainfall patterns,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said the Government was doing everything to ensure its communities were cushioned against the effects of climate change.
He highlighted that farmers remained important stakeholders in climate change matrix and would continue to be included in issues to do with the subject. He also called on the media to help spread information on impacts of climate change on agriculture for the benefit of the country.
“The degree to which climate change impacts agriculture depends on a number of factors. These include crop types, the scale of the operation, the farm’s commercial or subsistence profile, and the amount of natural resources.
“The Government will remain seized with assuring that all people have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food although this is a formidable challenge. This is not only the case in Africa, but also in other developed nations. The difference lies in the severity of the problem and the proportion of the population it affects,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said it was abundantly clear that rain-fed agriculture was no longer sustainable as it was buckling under the weight of global changes in climate with projections of low agricultural productivity starting to be apparent.
He added that the unprecedented vagaries of climate change require that climate change be effectively mainstreamed in development planning and budgeting processes. Government has therefore developed climate change mainstreaming research module to enhance the capacity of stakeholders critical in the planning process at national, sub-national and sectoral levels able to integrate climate change considerations in planning and budgetary processes.
He said as devolution gains momentum, mainstreaming climate change in national and sub-national plans would ensure that developmental gains were cushioned from climate shocks.
The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the impact of climate change on food security would be greatest in African nations. Africa has the largest number of malnourished people, the fewest resources to adapt and the fastest growing population to deal with.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 95% of the food is grown under rain-fed agriculture. It is therefore extremely vulnerable to adverse climate conditions, projected to reduce rainfall and increase temperatures.
IPCC contends that in developed nations, food security is alleviated by providing targeted interventions, including direct food aid in the form of food relief, or indirect subsidies.
“These efforts have been successful in reducing food insecurity in developed nations but have had less success in Africa, which has an insufficient resource base and shorter periods of intervention,” said IPCC.
Large-scale mitigation options, along with education about climate change, could help alleviate the impacts of climate change on food security and agriculture in Zimbabwe and the continent at large — although there is a tacit admission that there is still much work to be done.
The devastating effects of climate change faced by the region in recent years requires interventions towards enhancing climate resilience, in particular rain-fed agriculture, central to food security and livelihoods of the rural population.
