Call for strategies to cope with climate change

climate change.
Climate change is an identifiable statistical change in the state of the climate, which persists for a period of a minimum of 30 years.
Climate variability is the variations in the mean state and other statistics relating to the climate on all temperatures and spatial scales beyond that of individual weather events.
The most affected areas are Chiredzi, Murehwa, Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe, Mhondoro and Tsholotsho, among other areas.
Speaking at a Community Technology Development Trust climate change workshop in Harare recently, farmers said experts should not spend time debating on whether what was happening to the climate was change or variability.
They should instead come up with solutions to the problems that have been brought by the phenomenon.
Speaking at the workshop, Murehwa farmer Mrs Majorie Jeke said farmers in different parts of the country were aware of climate change.
She said farmers required knowledge on how they could practise agriculture under such an environment.
Farmers, she added, had observed the variability in the onset and cessation dates of the rainy season, uneven rain distribution and extreme temperatures and have interpreted this as climate change.
“There has been loss of crop diversity especially long-term varieties while some are now practising conservation agriculture.
“We have now resorted to using potholing and staggering planting dates so that when one crop fails the other may do well,” she said.
Mrs Jeke said some farmers in the affected areas were now growing small grains although they were having difficulties in finding markets.
Farmers said they expected Agritex to come up with improved training methodologies that suite the present situation.
Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe Agritex officer, Mr Goodson Chisaka said seed companies should breed improved crop varieties tailor-made for specific agro-ecological regions.
He said farmers in his area have started farmer field schools that are used as demonstration sites.
“At Chibika Farmer Field School we have demonstration plots where different crop varieties and farming technologies are tested before being adopted,” he said.
At the end of the demonstrations, farmers will be able to select suitable varieties for their area and this has resulted in the community forming a seed bank for best crop types.
Presenting at the conference, Meteorological Services Department expert Mr Tirivanhu Muhwati, who confirmed that Zimbabwe was undergoing climate change, said the phenomenon posed a threat to the agriculture sector which is mainly rainfed.
“Farmers should have rain gauges at their farms so that they will be able to keep records and know the specific rain patterns for their farms.
This, he said, would help them gauge the onset, duration and cessation dates of the rainy season for their farms.
Weather experts, scientists, farmers and non-governmental organisation staff attended the workshop, which was aimed at highlighting and sharing information and experiences with policymakers, technocrats and other relevant stakeholders some results of the recently carried out studies.
Stakeholders also wanted discuss possible scenarios that could be carried out to ensure that smallholder farmers remain above the climate change curve.