‘Build on lessons from last season’s drought’

 

Joshua Muswere

Herald Correspondent

THE disastrous El Nino-induced drought of the 2023/24 farming season left lessons that the country should use to prepare for future seasons including the current one.

Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary Professor Obert Jiri said this during a recent conference on building resilience in the agriculture sector held in Harare. The event was organised by AFC Insurance with sponsorship from TransAxis. Integrated media house, Zimpapers came in as the media partner. Prof Jiri was the guest of honour.

Dubbed ‘Building Climate Resilience in Zimbabwe Conference,’ the event was running under the theme: ‘Lessons Learnt from the 2024/25 seasonal forecast.’

The conference drew participants from Government ministries and departments, the Meteorological Services Department (MSD) and the agriculture sector who came together to seek strategies the country can use to cope with the current climate change challenges.

“As we move into the 2024/25 agricultural season, let us do so with optimism, commitment and a unified strategy anticipating that we are on a recovery path to transform our agriculture sector and achieve food security,” Prof Jiri said.
He took time reflect on the 2023/24 agricultural season and share the Ministry’s outlook towards the current farming season on the backdrop of new and structured initiatives to ensure the agriculture sector was resilient to climate change shocks going into the future.
“We have a special chance to prepare for the 2024/25 agricultural season as we consider the lessons we gained from the El-Nino drought experienced during the 2023/24 agricultural season.

“The 2023/24 drought was the worst recorded in 43 years and attributed to climate change and variability. The season recorded significant decrease in production of cereals estimated at 635 000 tonnes causing food insecurity among the people of Zimbabwe both in rural and urban areas,” observed Prof Jiri.
He explained that the country was taking the hardships experienced last season positively and was now able to shape the future of its agriculture amid the challenges. The agriculture sector was now able to withstand future shocks and farmers had acquired high resilience levels that enabled them to emerge stronger against all odds.
Prof Jiri said lessons drawn from the previous season had provided a road map to climate-proof agriculture through innovative pathways towards resilience. He, however, lamented the lack of preparedness that the country exhibited in its response to last season’s drought saying it could have done better.

“The El Nino was predicted but our response systems were very slow to react. In this regard, the Ministry saw the need to invest in strong meteorological services and send timely weather forecasts to our farmer in order to give our agricultural communities the information they need to make wise decisions.

“We have discovered the indisputable value of early warning systems as a Ministry,” he added.
Adopted strategies to counter future challenges include efficient water management and conservation techniques, agro-ecological matching and climate proofing, diversifying food systems, irrigation development and rehabilitation, agricultural insurance, community driven initiatives by supporting community led projects and responding to climate predictions.
On average, African countries are losing two to five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to climate change-inspired problems while many are diverting up to nine percent of their budgets to responding to climate extremes.

According to the World Meteorological Department State of Climate Africa 2023 report, the cost of adaptation is estimated to be between US$30 to US$50 billion annually over the next decade for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.