The Sunday News
Sunday News Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) is working with rural communities in the country to improve capacity to anticipate, prepare and respond to shocks and stresses in agriculture and its value chain which are at risk of climate change.
The programme that is carried out in a number of communities have seen households building resilience and transforming lives through use of locally available resources to increase income levels and strengthen community social safety nets.
Recently, farmers from Matabeleland’s four districts of Nkayi, Umguza, Umzingwane and Bubi who are working with the Matabeleland Enhanced Livelihoods Agriculture and Nutrition (MELANA) embarked on a learning exchange programme in Mutoko where they exchanged notes and created synergies on how best to remain sustainable through diversified livelihood options.
In Mutoko and Mudzi just like in the Matabeleland North and South districts farmers told of their success stories brought by ZRBF through the Building Resilience through Absorptive and Adaptive Capacity for Transformation (BRACT) project.
A number of farmers said their lives have been transformed in a number of ways with issues of decreased gender-based violence topping the discussions where women said through empowerment, they were no longer dependent on men for provisions.
“My husband doesn’t work and we were always fighting because resources were not enough at home. But with the coming in of ZRBF and its projects I am empowered. We do conservation agriculture, we do Boer goats and we are also into non-timber forest products such as zumbani tea, rosella and others where we have been connected to markets through BRACT,” said Ms Lucia Zirugo of Ward 8 in Mutoko.
In an interview after the tour, ZRBF- BRACT team leader Mr Tirivafi Shuro said the project was designed to improve the absorptive, adaptive and transformative resilience capacities for 17,035 households (8,058 in Mutoko and 8,977 in Mudzi).
“This translates to about 69,636 individuals benefiting from the programme. Targeted households are those that exhibited high poverty levels at the same time being vulnerable to drought. Thirty-seven percent of the currently participating households are female headed.”
He said one of the project outcomes was to have targeted beneficiaries have diversified and viable livelihood strategies adapted to climatic and non-climatic shocks and stresses.
“This is a project that we are doing with funding from ZBBF where communities are mobilized and organized to transform their socio-economic and ecological systems and where they are empowered to demand access to improved services from duty bearers as well as influence policy. Its implementation is led by Agritex under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development with other key government departments,” said Mr Shuro.
The project which began in October 2017 and ending June 2022, not only focus on increasing agricultural incomes but aims at reducing over-dependence on agricultural income in such a fragile environment by promoting alternative non-agricultural income sources.
The communities have therefore embraced conservation agriculture techniques and demonstrated interest in drought tolerant small grains and small livestock (indigenous chickens and goats).
The project’s absorptive actions include training and supporting communities to develop, resource and maintain active and inclusive disaster preparedness and response plans as well as supporting and strengthening their capacity to actively participate in community savings and investment groups.
Its adaptive actions have helped households to realise increased production and marketing of traditional crops and livestock, enhancing regular consumption of traditionally produced nutritious foods and strengthening sustainable productivity and competitiveness.
The BRACT just like the MELANA project has also equipped youths with knowledge and skills to engage in non-agricultural income generating activities and sustainable harvesting and processing of non-timber forest products such as zumbani, marula, mafavuke which is dried for making tea for viable markets.
Mr Edison Dhlakama who was leading the team from Matabeleland paid tribute to ZRBF for oreganising the learning exchange visit saying they were going to implement some of the things they saw.
“There is a transformative intervention to build the capacity of communities to self-organise and participate in sustainable development starting at household level. We have learnt a lot and we are going to implement some of the things we have learnt here in Mutoko. We also exchanged notes on how best we can improve sustainability in the face of climate change,” said Mr Dhlakama.
