The Sunday News
Finlay Small and Manish Raizada, in their paper titled “Mitigating dry season food insecurity in the subtropics by prospecting drought-tolerant, nitrogen-fixing weeds”, say “Globally, almost 600 million smallholders and landless labourers experience hunger in the dry season.
This situation is expected to worsen, as water shortages are expected to impact up to two-thirds of humanity between 2010 and 2050. A second challenge is that 45 percent of the world’s agricultural land is sloped and vulnerable to intense surface runoff during the transition from the dry to rainy season (e.g., monsoon). Erosion, along with nutrient mining, contributes to a net loss of soil fertility.”
They argue that planting drought-tolerant crops can mitigate these challenges. They say subsistence farmers around the world can benefit from nutritious and drought-tolerant cover crops that can sustain nitrogen fixation in the dry season.
Experts say the rationale for a shift from maize production to small grain production is premised on a number of scientific reasons. Sorghum and millet are believed to be more ecologically compatible with semi-arid areas compared to maize because of their drought tolerance.
Mukarumbwa and Mushunje (2010) postulate that small grains require little input during growth and with increasing world populations and decreasing water supplies, they will be important crops for future human use.
Drought resistance crops also have a long storage life and are seldom attacked by insects and moulds. Small grains’ long storage life makes them important as a risk avoidance strategy in food security.
Last week, the First Lady, Amai Auxilia Mnangagwa, handed over a consignment of traditional grains to chiefs’ spouses from Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, encouraging them to promote the eating of by-products of the grains which are a rich source of nutrition.
Amai Mnangagwa, who handed over the grains in Bulawayo, said chiefs and their wives were the custodians of tradition and culture and key in ensuring food security in the nation.
“I am glad to be here with all you fellow mothers from our respective areas of jurisdiction in the quest of establishing food security in our country. There is still a gap in the consumption and adoption of the traditional grains. This was our staple food before and we cannot call it small grains anymore but traditional grains,” she said.
She highlighted the reality of climate change saying there is a deliberate need to promote the growing of the traditional grains throughout the country.
“You are the custodians of our culture, because of climate change we are seeing ourselves in the promotion of traditional grains.
“The unexpected variations in change of climate is responsible for the successive droughts and disruptions in the expected rainfall patterns. We have experienced the challenges of climate change so we are looking at proposals of solutions to the problems,” she added.
We applaud the move by the First Lady, as it reminds Zimbabweans of the need to plant drought resistant crops, especially now at a time when the rainfall pattern is unpredictable due to climate change.
Drought resistant crops like millet and sorghum not only ensure food security, but also nutrition.
Farmers have also been encouraged to concentrate on short season varieties and rear drought-tolerant livestock breeds as the frequency of droughts intensifies. Farmers should also be encouraged to grow traditional crops that are more drought-resistant and adaptable to climate change.
Hybrid varieties of both livestock and crops as well as long season varieties should be the preserve of those with irrigation.
