It would seem efforts by the government and other stakeholders to make available inputs in a desperate bid to boost the agricultural sector in the country have all but gone to waste.
Column by Chipo Masara
With the exception of the tobacco industry which has been on an upward trend, there has been very little productivity, leaving millions of people in Zimbabwe in dire need of food assistance.
What boggles many is how in just over a decade, Zimbabwe has gone from being a major food exporter to being a country dependent on hand-outs to alleviate its people’s hunger.
It is continually becoming clear that simply providing agricultural inputs will not be enough to ensure food security in the country. What is clearly required to revive agriculture, which is clearly the panacea to acquiring a food security status, is a proper turn-around strategy.
Many factors have played a part in seeing the agricultural sector crumble, some factors being natural and beyond the farmers’ control, while some, the farmers have brought on themselves.
It is now undeniable that the climate has indeed been changing, which has given much credence to the climate change and global warming phenomenon. In what many scientists believe to be the culmination of the phenomenon, there has been a major shift in the country’s rainfall patterns, something that has left many farmers unsure as to when exactly to start planting.
When the rains finally come, they are often followed by long dry periods characterised by intense heat, which has in most instances ravaged the crops, making replanting a necessity. And then there are times, as is presently happening in most areas, when the rainfall is too abundant and damages the crops in the end.
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The Herald of Wednesday 16 January had a story entitled “Wet spell triggers widespread leaching” which talked about how “low-lying areas are now so waterlogged that crops such as maize and cotton are suffering from stunted growth.”
Ecological balance has been upset
The wanton cutting down of trees by some so-called farmers has upset the ecological balance that once existed, destroying wildlife habitat and leaving the country facing serious deforestation. So, in a nutshell, years of inappropriate agricultural practices have had an adverse impact on agriculture.
It has resulted in land degradation and decline in soil fertility, pollution of water and air, and loss of wildlife, among other woes.
Many conservationists believe it is time more efforts were put, not so much in gathering inputs (as these would still come to waste if present conditions still prevail), but in helping farmers adapt to new farming practices that have been proven to work, even under the country’s current climatic conditions.
Time to adopt sustainable farming methods in Zim
Besides natural disasters that have rendered farming a mammoth task, most farmers have not made matters any easier on themselves. Most of them, mainly owing to clear ignorance, have not been practising good farming methods.
They have for some time employed tactics that they believed minimised operating costs, like slash and burn, which have degraded the soil, making it infertile and as a result yielding very little. The overdependence on pesticides and other chemicals has only served to tire the soils even further.
The adoption of conservation farming by every farmer is long overdue.
Conservation farming has been described as “any system or practice which aims to conserve soil and water by using surface cover (mulch) to minimise run-off and erosion and improve the conditions for plant establishment and growth”.
Conservation farming is a system that is designed to use the mulch cover to reduce soil erosion and land degradation, reduce soil temperatures and conserve moisture for plant growth, increase organic matter levels and improve soil structure and fertility.
This is meant to achieve viable and sustainable productivity.
It also includes components and practices such as zero tillage, agro-forestry, alley cropping, integrated pest management, organic farming, crop and pasture rotation and contour farming, among many others.
For those with a profound interest in farming and would want to know more about conservation farming, there will be a follow-up article next week that simplifies the different components of this type of farming, describing in detail what it involves.
Zimbabwe has the potential to not only revive the agricultural sector and ensure food security for its entire people, but to once again become the bread basket of southern Africa, and beyond.
What is required is for farmers to realise that it is no longer business-as-usual and that with a change in strategy, they can make the present conditions work for them.
It is time to adopt sustainable farming practices.
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