A FEW weeks ago, one of my friends was passionately discussing the El Niño phenomenon and the severity of the current drought.
According to him, his family had only managed to enjoy fresh mealies twice since the harvest season. Reflecting on this, I realised the harsh reality of the situation.
In my mind, I pictured the nostalgic rural harvest-time breakfast: fresh boiled mealies, lightly salted; fresh pumpkin slices; creamy bottle gourd; and a rustic Kango mug filled to the brim with sweet hot tea and Cremora.
This is just one cherished meal.
Consider also the combo of overboiled roundnuts with a side of freshly boiled peanuts. Sadly, these simple pleasures were scarce this harvest season.
It is consoling that the prices of basics such as mealie meal have stabilised and surprisingly not skyrocketed as anticipated.
However, it is disheartening that our traditional food systems, deeply rooted in our way of life as Zimbabweans, were disrupted by the El Niño dry spell.
It is common in our communities, both urban and rural, for people to visit successful farmers' homesteads frequently during the harvest season.
It is our way that once you bring a few rumours to their homestead, you receive some fresh produce in return, inspiring you to continue sharing the hot gossip. Life often revolves around these small events that we overlook and take for granted.
I am sure life often is about these small events that we many times overlook and take for granted.
These experiences are difficult to quantify compared to the dip in food production. It is also challenging to explain the El Niño phenomenon in depth to the average person.
The main takeaway has been that temperatures are expected to rise, rainfall is likely to drop, and food security is threatened.
As we entered the 2022–2023 agricultural season, mainstream media consistently warned of "below normal rainfall".
Now, we understand that climate change is not a localised curse but a global issue.
In the public eye and in my uncle’s perceptions from the shade of the Musumha tree in Chivi, the reduced rainfall and rising temperatures were evident.
Not too different from the previous year but just a little more this time around.
This winter is unlike any other. Maybe it is the age catching up, but it is a harsh Zimbabwean winter.
Some colleagues from a struggling community-based organisation have been encouraging my uncle to rethink and diversify his food systems, considering small grain plots to offset maize failure, keeping bees for honey, embracing agroecology, and finding new ways to harvest rain and drainage water.
This requires reconfiguring my uncle’s thinking, an uphill battle given his deeply held indigenous knowledge he holds on to so dearly from years of farming in the same village.
Reality is stubborn. There is a growing perception favouring a holistic approach to food production.
Not only Zimbabwe but also neighbouring countries like Zambia, and other African states like Kenya and Tanzania are considering reimagining both communal and commercial agricultural practices.
Locally, our appeal has been for development partners to assist with food aid where needed, but what is critical is building localised resilience that empowers community initiatives and projects.
The community initiatives should redesign their food systems to be secure, environmentally friendly, and sustainable, reducing dependency by building sustainable incomes and harvests. Aid should focus on building capacity and prioritizing ready-to-wean projects.
In Zimbabwe, we were projected to import around 1,1 million tonnes of maize this year to counter the drought, sourced through the Grain Millers Association from neighbours with thriving industrial agriculture supported by well-defined property rights and standard financing. Is it time to reconsider our stance on land tenure?
This could accelerate support for commercial agriculture to the level of welcoming more partners from North, East, West, and South.
Engaging young people in agriculture could be less of a challenge if they see financial benefits. Learning from past mistakes could lead to a transformative moment (our Rwanda moment) for us.
Back to winter and the science behind climate change. If the dry spell was due to El Niño, what is causing this unusual winter?
Winter greenhouse horticulture projects, especially tomatoes, are suffering from frosting.
This is most common in tomatoes and in the case of indoor mushrooms.
In Murehwa, a women-led cooperative has struggled with a delayed spawn run for their local grey oyster mushrooms, taking almost eight weeks to sprout. These are ongoing effects of significant temperature shifts; imaging how the winter began this year from the preceding hot spell.
It would be strategic to approach the times from a forecasted perspective. Are we heading into another low rainfall season like the one we have been through, or is there truth to the rumours of a La Niña season?
If our investments in data-driven research can verify this early, it would help farmers plan their enterprises in time.
Adaptive planning for the coming seasons could mean that next harvest period, we might once again enjoy the simple pleasure of fresh boiled mealies and pumpkins, shared with the latest village gossip.
I am open to an argument about whether the ensuing drought negatively affected rural and urban Zimbabweans’ mental health.
Addressing whether the drought negatively affected the mental health of rural and urban Zimbabweans is an open question.
It is hoped that more public-private partnerships will be created and sustained to increase collective action on climate issues.
With these thoughts in mind, one prays that the urgency of passing the Climate Change Bill will overshadow the push for the PVO Bill, fostering a friendlier environment for grassroots adaptive initiatives to thrive.
- Mafa is an agricultural economist and GLFx Chapter lead and co-founder Rima Africa. These weekly New Perspectives articles, published in the Zimbabwe Independent, are coordinated by Lovemore Kadenge, an independent consultant, managing consultant of Zawale Consultants (Pvt) Ltd, past president of the Zimbabwe Economics Society and past president of the Chartered Governance & Accountancy Institute in Zimbabwe (CGI Zimbabwe). — kadenge.zes@gmail.com or mobile: +263 772 382 852.
