Zimpapers Logo

THE likelihood of normal to below normal rainfall over fairly large areas of Zimbabwe this coming season, as a result of an El Nino in the Pacific Ocean, has seen the Government and particularly the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development putting in programmes and measures to ameliorate any ill effects.

With what has already been learnt from past poor seasons, as well as the successes of more, the latest season as more farmers are trained and take advice on what to grow and do, more detailed plans are now in place to make sure that not only is the progress of the agriculture sector maintained, but that farmers will still be making money from their work this season.

This is important. We cannot just sit back and wring our hands because less rain is likely to fall, or because there could be some bad patches during the season. 

What we do have to do is work out how to make every drop of rain that does fall count and make sure that the right crops are grown so that there are harvests. 

Making all rainfall count combines a lot of measures, from water harvesting through proper ridging and the like, to using mulches and other conservation techniques, which are now entrenched in the Pfumvudza/ Intwasa programmes, to harvesting grass to bale as hay and other stockfeeds to carry livestock through what may well be a drier winter.

Expansion and rehabilitation of irrigation schemes is now a priority. Among other requirements is a desire to grow 800 000 tonnes of maize under irrigation, ensuring that with whatever is harvested in the better rainfall areas there will be enough to meet all Zimbabwean demand.

Irrigation during the rainy season does not have to be total, as it does when growing wheat in a zero rainfall winter.

In many cases partial or supplementary irrigation is all that is required, to give a crop an early start and cope with any mid-season dry spells. This means a larger area can be partially irrigated so getting maximum advantage from the available equipment.

The ministry has also made it explicitly clear that experts are deciding what crops can be grown in each ecological zone with a reasonable hope of a harvest. 

This means there will be no support for maize, for example, in natural regions four and five. The expert opinion is that it makes no sense whatsoever to try and grow a crop that is highly likely to fail, when the same fertiliser can be used to grow a crop that should produce a return, even in difficult circumstances.

Farmers in the more arid zones have now accepted this advice, especially as the agriculture ministry is prepared to swap at the GMB depots traditional grain for maize, up to a limit of 1 tonne a household, so that families can vary their diet. 

Everyone hopes that more traditional grain will be eaten by more Zimbabweans, including those with plenty of water and plenty of money, but realises that people do like variation in their diet.

That variation should lead to both a more healthy diet and open up more opportunities for farmers to try new products.

The other area where a major effort is being made is to help farmers maintain their livestock and grow their herds. A lot of effort has gone into rehabilitating dip tanks, for example, and most livestock farmers now acknowledge that dipping is one of the smartest and most effective ways of controlling and eliminating tick-borne diseases.

This recognition has now probably reached the point where the holdouts will face more pressure from their neighbours, who dislike the idea of centres of infection in their area, than from the authorities, although communities are now more likely to call the authorities in. 

Things like vaccination, dipping, reporting quelea and other pests, reporting illegal movement of livestock and the like work so much better when they are universal.

The other area of improving livestock condition is making sure they are better fed. 

Commercial stockfeeds are available, and are expensive even though a fair proportion of the make up of these feeds is from the by-products and waste products of initial food processing.

Some commercial stockfeed might well be required by a conscientious farmer, but the experts reckon that there is a lot a farmer can do themselves.

Already a number of Matabeleland stock farmers are using any irrigation they have to grow lucerne and other suitable crops that can be converted into quality hay and become a decent livestock feed. 

The agriculture ministry is now setting aside more than 5 000 tonnes of urea, an organic nitrogen fertiliser, that when mixed with grass in the right proportions forms a high-quality, but relatively inexpensive stockfeed that can be used to bring cattle through more difficult times.

This seems to be applying the sort of practical research that the ministry has been stressing in recent times, with scientific staff working out how farmers, with the resources that are open to them, can produce more and make more money. 

Part of this process is cutting back on waste, such as not spending a vast sum on growing maize in a semi-desert or not letting your prize cattle die from preventable diseases, to making best use of what you do have to maximise production. 

At the same time climate change is a threat to Zimbabwe. We are in one of those areas of the world where global warming will be more damaging than in other parts. 

We are likely to have a generally drier climate and more events like cyclones. 

We need to be able to cope with both and make sure we can climate-proof as much of our agriculture as possible for as many farmers as possible.

The attitude taken by the responsible ministry this year appears to be both active and innovative. 

Wishful thinking is barred, but having decent advice to give and then making sure that this advice reaches all the farmers, and is backed up by the appropriate inputs, is plain common sense, and not “hoping for the best”. 

Those who plan for what is likely to happen, and take all factors into account, generally do a lot better than those hoping for a miracle on the day, a miracle that may well not happen.