Climate Proof Agriculture in Hwange — An Acid Test to Climate Change

Pvumvudza, an agricultural technique introduced by government in 2020 to promote food security, is being abandoned in Hwange. Image by UNDP

As climate change wreaks havoc, leaving communities facing hunger, some communal farmers in Zimbabwe were given hope through conservation agriculture, also known as Pfumvudza, as the answer to their problems. Years later, some people are abandoning the idea after poor yields.
 
BY CALVIN MANIKA | @The_CBNews | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | APR 13, 2023

HWANGE (The Citizen Bulletin) — One of the farmers in Dete, Matabeleland North who adopted conservation agriculture after years of drought is a 45-year-old Mandlenkosi Dube.
 
Desiring a change in his farming fortunes, Dube began participating in the laborious conservation agriculture so he can benefit from free inputs under the government Pfumvudza/Intwasa program.
 
“Following a drought of several years, I eagerly accepted the program,” Dube says,
 
Dete is located in natural regions IV and V characterized by extremely high temperatures of 25 °C and above with annual rainfall of less than 450 mm.
 
Due to a combination of unfavourable climatic conditions, poor soils and other constricting natural and socioeconomic constraints, agriculture has a low potential in Dete.
 
This is worsened by lack of capacity for adaptation.
 
According to Dube, conservation agriculture is effective when rainfall is ordinary to below average.
 
But he warns that farmers are more likely to fail in their endeavours when there is less rainfall.
 
“Pfumvudza thrives on maintaining moisture and nourishing the soil with the manure we put in the hole,” he says.

“Long dry periods, as is the situation in some areas of Hwange, make the Pfumvudza concept unworkable.”
Mandlenkosi Dube

Pvumvudza is an agricultural technique that was introduced by the government in 2020 to promote food security and reduce poverty.

It is a method of conservation agriculture that focuses on small plots that retain water easily, and it is more efficient than large-scale ploughing.

The technique involves the use of small plots of land and emphasizes the importance of crop management and conservation agriculture.

Admire Chiminya, an agronomist, says re-capacitation is urgently required to guarantee the success of Pfumvudza in dry areas such as Dete.
 
“Second, adopting customized digital advice services, solar energy policy, and rainwater collection will go a long way in assuring enhanced smallholder farmer production, preventing hunger, and ensuring food security (SDGs 1 and 2),” he says.
 
Crop yields in Africa were forecasted to be reduced by almost half by 2020, according to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and this trend has been growing.
 
The IPCC says this will have severe negative effects on already vulnerable and underdeveloped populations that depend on climate-sensitive sources of income including agriculture and natural systems.
 
According to climate change predictions for southern Africa, the region will confront more difficulties as a result of anticipated climate changes.
 
The majority of Zimbabwean farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture, a situation that makes them vulnerable.

Farmers say if climate change is not addressed, it might undo progress made in many different areas of development and exacerbate the vulnerability of local systems and the national economy.

Nkululeko Masuku, 51, a communal farmer in Matetsi, views conservation agriculture as a wonderful idea that communal farmers need to adopt.
 
“It is advisable to undertake Pfumvudza on a small plot of ground, perhaps one acre,” Masuku says.

Solar energy provides sustainable farming solutions. Image by SNV

The Pfumbudza initiative encourages the production of maize, sunflower, minor grains, and soya beans in nearly 1.6 million vulnerable households, according to the United Nations (UN).
 
Government coordinates Pfumvudza through agricultural extension officers.
 
If one is eligible, government provides them with farming inputs and fertilizer.
 
Each agricultural extension officer was given a target of 350 households to train, track and monitor the adoption of Conservation Agriculture.
 
“All necessary preparation operations, such as holing out, mulching, etc., should form the conditions for a farmer to become a beneficiary,” says Ian Ndlovu, an Agricultural Extension Officer.

Tinotenda Chauke, a development specialist, is however a critic of Pfumvudza saying government was taking the nation to the Stone Age era with the programme.

“Indeed, Pfumbudza is for the type of farming that was practiced in the 14th century,” he says.
 
“People may engage in it for learning purposes rather than as a national discovery and farming tool.”

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“That is being dishonest about the current state of development, agriculture, and climate change.”
 
Patrick Sibanda, a former teacher and resident of Madumabisa, Hwange, says government needs to increase its research spending to combat climate change.
 
“Research will inform their agricultural interventions in the face of climate change and in budgetary terms. All the resources spent on Pfumvudza could have been poured into research and harnessing the findings to assist famers especially in regions like Hwange,” says Sibanda.

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