The Sunday News
News Editor
WITH Zimbabwe grappling the challenges posed by climate change and fluctuating weather patterns, innovative agricultural practices are emerging as crucial lifelines for farmers across the nation.
Among these practices, Pfumvudza/Intwasa and the cultivation of small grains have emerged as beacons of hope, offering resilience and sustainability in the face of adversity.
Pfumvudza/Intwasa, a conservation farming concept promoted by the Government, emphasizes the utilisation of small plots of land for intensive farming. This approach, coupled with the adoption of climate-smart techniques such as mulching and minimal tillage, aims to boost productivity while conserving natural resources.
In tandem with Pfumvudza, the cultivation of small grains has gained traction among farmers, offering a diverse array of benefits in below-average rainfall areas. Small grains, including millet, sorghum and rapoko, are renowned for their resilience to harsh weather conditions, making them ideal crops for Zimbabwe’s increasingly erratic rainfall patterns due to climate change.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Permanent Secretary Prof Obert Jiri has on several fora underscored the significance of Pfumvudza and small grains in bolstering food security and livelihoods.
He said it was encouraging that across the nation, success stories abound with farmers who embraced Pfumvudza/Intwasa and the small grains with enthusiasm and determination having good harvests in the face of the El Nino-induced drought.
He added that from increased yields to improved soil health, the benefits are tangible, reaffirming the efficacy of these practices in mitigating the challenges posed by climate change.
“As Zimbabwe charts its path towards agricultural resilience and sustainability, Pfumvudza and the cultivation of small grains stand as pillars of strength, empowering farmers to thrive in the face of adversity and safeguarding the nation’s food security for generations to come.
“In the face of climate uncertainty, Pfumvudza and the cultivation of small grains offer a sustainable solution for farmers,” Prof Jiri emphasises.
“These practices not only enhance resilience but also contribute to diversifying income streams and ensuring food sovereignty.”
Prof Jiri elaborates on the importance of knowledge dissemination and capacity-building initiatives to promote the adoption of these practices among farmers.
“Education and training are essential components of successful implementation,” he notes.
“By empowering farmers with the necessary skills and knowledge, we can facilitate widespread adoption and maximise the impact of Pfumvudza and small grain cultivation.”
He said the Government will continue offering support to the farmers who have adopted Pfumvudza/Intwasa as that was among the sure ways to achieve food security for the country and food self-sufficiency at the household level.
Food security, as defined by the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security, means that all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.
Access to quality, nutritious food is fundamental to human existence and necessary for human happiness. Secure access to food can produce wide-ranging positive impacts, including economic growth and job creation.
Prof Jiri said mindful of that, the Government initiated the process of enhancing agricultural productivity and production built on sustainable production systems anchored on building the resilience of social-ecological systems.
The initiatives adopted included but were not limited to upscaling and expediting irrigation rehabilitation and expansion so that there is full utilisation of existing and new water bodies and use of climate-smart agriculture through the adoption of conservation agriculture techniques and principles such as Pfumvudza/Intwasa.
They also included the development of stress-tolerant, high-yielding crop varieties, the promotion of traditional grains in low-potential areas that are climate-smart and the implementation of commercial contract farming that is led by financial services with the Government providing guarantees.
He said of the above, a low-hanging fruit that could be implemented with limited resources was the climate-proof agriculture concept that was supported by the Presidential Input Support Scheme.
The concept adopts conservation agriculture techniques or principles such as minimum soil disturbances and mulching and soil fertility management through soil conditioning practices including liming and manuring and it hasn’t been disappointing. The concept came into being after trends showed that unlike in the distant past where several communities in the countryside used to live pretty well off their communal pieces of land, they were no longer harvesting much owing to the effects of climate change leaving communities hopeless and with a food deficit headache.
This has been happening year in and year out leaving not only Zimbabwe but the Sub-Saharan Africa region reeling from the adverse effects of climate change that have caused output in the agriculture sector to decline. The Government has always been the last stop in the intervention hierarchy where it would import and distribute food to vulnerable households.
It was Prof Jiri’s submission that if all households were to adopt conservation farming, resources that were channelled to secure food for the nation could be used for other important things and infrastructure development.
The approach, according to the concept paper, can be used in marginal areas and still give high yields allowing smallholder farmers to achieve household food security, while large-scale farmers can produce for the strategic grain reserve.
Its three key basic principles are that it uses minimum or zero tillage, it emphasises the maintenance of organic mulch cover on the soil surface and it involves the use of crop rotations and interactions that include legume crops.
“The concept of Pfumvudza/Intwasa is a way of climate-proofing our agriculture. Fundamentally this is conservation farming,” said Prof Jiri.
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The practice seeks to conserve moisture and reduce soil losses through erosion. There is very little disturbance to the soil as only holing out is done.
“A key component to the concept is the covering of the plot with leaves or any dead plant material as mulch to avoid excessive moisture loss,” said Prof Jiri.
He added that the concept was a crop production intensification approach that allows farmers to concentrate resources and expend energy on a small land unit to facilitate optimum management resulting in increased productivity.
He noted that climate change had led to frequent droughts and limited precipitation. Pfumvudza/Intwasa will therefore help to conserve the little precipitation through mulching and harvesting it in the dug-out holes.
Agronomist and farmer Mr Davison Masendeke said it was encouraging that Government was coming up with concepts aimed at improving agriculture production to avert food insufficiency.
“The concept is a sustainable way of crop production intensification whereby farmers concentrate resources on a smaller piece of land reducing labour demand and resulting in higher productivity from lower investment, hence higher profit margins,” said Mr Masendeke.
He explained that reducing tillage operations has an impact of reducing moisture loss from inner soil layers and improving the soil structure in the long term, resulting in improved water infiltration. Zero or limited tillage is therefore encouraged.
He stressed the need for moisture. “The most limiting factor in crop growth is moisture. There is a need therefore, to create a micro catchment to minimise run-off evaporation and keep moisture available,” he said.
This, according to him, can be made possible by the presence of a mulch that minimises the impact of intense rainfall on the soil thereby further reducing water run-off and soil erosion. The mulch also minimises compaction by intense rainfall, reduces temperature fluctuations at the soil surface and also smothers weeds.
