adminplanning their agricultural activities.
In an interview in Harare recently, Coping With Drought and Climate Change project manager, Dr Leonard Unganai, said his organisation had established weather monitoring stations in four different wards in Chiredzi District to help farmers appreciate the relationship between climate and agricultural productivity.
“The weather monitoring stations give the farmers information on rainfall, temperatures and even evaporation. There is a very high demand for the stations to include information on wind speed and direction as well,” Dr Unganai explained.
Dr Unganai said the weather stations had made it possible for farmers to use accurate information on rainfall expected in a season and this had also influenced the types of crops and varieties they settled for.
“Agritex officials man the weather stations and are currently exploring ways of getting the farmers to read and understand the information on their own.
“Farmers must be able to use information on weather forecast products in managing cropping and livestock activities,” he commented. Chiredzi lies in natural region five and is extremely vulnerable to the impact of climate variability and changes hence the need to explore other ways of earning a livelihood other than conventional agriculture, added Dr Unganai.
He said they had assisted villagers to establish a crocodile farming project that currently had close to 1 000 reptiles, the first batch of which was almost ready for the market.
“The average price for the skin of a crocodile is between US$8 and US$9 per centimetre while on average the whole crocodile fetches something in the region of US$300.
“We have also identified dams for fish projects. Ward 13 has Masukwe Dam that is currently being re-stocked. We will also train the communities in management, processing and marketing of the fish that have ready markets both locally and outside the borders,” said Dr Unganai.
Coping With Drought and Climate Change has also assisted villagers in Chibwedziva in a CAMPFIRE initiative in which they manage natural resources and keep wild animals for trophy hunting.
“The villagers have since started ploughing back into the community and have established five grinding mills, a grocery store and bought a three and half tonne truck to easy transport problems.
“They have also participated in the development of schools and a clinic using proceeds from trophy hunting,” said Dr Unganai.
Additionally, Dr Unganai stressed the need for farmers in the arid regions such as Chiredzi to practice crop diversity as a way of spre-ading risk.
Farmers in Chiredzi have experimented with crops such as cassava, pearl millet and sorghum with very encouraging results.
Pearl millet, for instance, has outperformed maize and sorghum-scoring more than a tonne per hectare and boosting food security in the process.
Online Reporter