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Obert Chifamba
Agri-Insight
Last Wednesday, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Anxious Masuka informed parliamentarians that Government was reviewing conditions for the issuance of permits and offer letters to include a clause obligating all beneficiaries of the land redistribution exercise to protect the environment from veld fires.
Government arrived at this decision after the realisation that vast tracts of land in the farming communities are being decimated by fires every year, which has devastating effects on the environment and agricultural production.
The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement has since joined forces with Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry to form a coordination platform where they meet fortnightly to coordinate with EMA and Agritex in exploring ways of improving communication with all stakeholders, principally farmers, on the dangers of veld fires.
Minister Masuka also observed that there is a law that requires everyone to stop and assist in putting out a fire although its existence and enforcement has not been explicitly applied, especially in the newly resettled areas.
Surely, there can be no better time for the enforcement of that law than now.
In fact, land clearing activities by resettled farmers have been blamed for the rampant veld fires that have scorched hundreds of thousands, if not millions of hectares of productive farming land every year, with climate experts saying the fires were also contributing to the current global warming challenges.
The sad reality on the ground is that the fires always seem to be coming out of the blues with no one taking responsibility or even trying to put them out despite the trail of destruction they are leaving.
What is even more worrisome is the farmers and communities’ nonchalant attitude towards the fires and their dire effects on agricultural production, which they all depend on.
They always watch the fires engulf endless tracts of land and do nothing to try and put out the fires or just try to minimise the damage.
It should not take rocket science for anyone to realise that each time fires break out, they cause destruction and are a danger to flora, fauna and biodiversity in general with human life also at stake, for instance, the recent incident in which a father and his son lost their lives in a road accident that was caused by poor visibility in Bindura.
The unfortunate incident saw the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) slapping two farms, Thrums and Erin with a $30 000 fine for starting the fires that resulted in the accident.
EMA’s education and publicity manager, Ms Amkela Sidange has since confirmed the development, urging farmers to act responsibly if the battle to stop veld fires is to be won.
EMA has since issued 226 tickets, with farmers paying between $30 000 and $50 000, and opened 23 dockets, both for failure to put in place standard fireguards and for starting fires that caused extensive damage to the environment and property.
A total of 4 731 Environmental Protection Orders have been served to farmers too.
Statistics availed by EMA show that since the fire season started on July 31 there have been over 536 veld fire incidents that burnt 180 787, 01ha compared to 186 cases reported last year.
The abundant biomass has put the country at 89 percent risk of veld fires this year compared to 39 percent in 2020 with areas that are traditionally not prone to veld fires at risk this year.
It is, therefore, prudent to applaud EMA’s efforts in doing extensive education and awareness programmes to sensitise communities on veld fire management and prevention to save lives, property and the environment, and the bumper harvest the country scored from the 2020/21 farming season.
EMA has also acquired a satellite tracking system for veld fires that is able to detect fires as they occur and is working with Agritex, Forestry Commission, Zimparks and other key stakeholders that include farmers.
The current fire guard blitz and generous issuance of tickets by EMA should continue and needs support from all Government departments if the country is to contain this veld fire scourge, which is threatening to decimate the environment.
At least 58 tickets were issued to A1 and A2 farmers in Hurungwe, Mashonaland West, for not constructing fire guards around their farms with EMA taking the blitz to other fire prone districts such as Zvimba, Makonde and Hurungwe to check for the level of compliance in terms of putting in place fire prevention measures.
EMA recently revealed that it had investigated at least eight fire incidents with two dockets being prepared for prosecution while those issued with tickets paid fines of between $30 000 and $50 000 while 47 environment protection orders were issued during the blitz.
The agency has also reported that fireguard compliance was disappointingly low in districts such as Chikomba of Mashonaland East province at 5,6 percent with many land owners reportedly not resident at their farms.
This is cause for concern given that the fight to contain veld fires requires concerted efforts by all stakeholders.
It is also disappointing to note that the level of compliance in the construction of fire guards in a district as big as Hurungwe where farming is everybody’s daily bread was reported to be very low at 24 percent with some farmers even using fire for post-harvest land clearing.
Standard fireguards must be nine metres wide on either sides of fences to be effective against fires.
The cliché that prevention is better than cure aptly sums what people must do to contain the rampaging veld fires.
They just need to stop starting fires outside their premises especially given that the practice has since been declared illegal.
The bottom line, however, is that no fires are allowed to be started when the fire season starts from July 31 to October 31 owing to the dry conditions and biomass, which make it easier for the fire to go out of control.
Those farmers with crop residue need not burn but keep it for use as supplementary feeds for their livestock or as mulch for next summer cropping season’s Pfumvudza/Intwasa for programme.
The annual average burnt area from 2010 to 2020 is one million hectares with an average of 60 percent of the total burnt area under the A1 and A2 resettlement areas, while only 400 out of 18 000 A2 farmers have 99-year leases, which have specific clauses on environmental protection.
This year, the country is targeting a 25 percent reduction in land lost to veld fires in line with the dictates of the National Development Strategy (NDS1) on reduction of land burnt by veld fires.
Provinces at extreme risk are Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central and Manicaland while Matabeleland provinces, Midlands and Masvingo are this time at high risk to veld fires.
Online Reporter
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