Online Reporter
Rutendo Nyeve
AS global weather patterns shift towards an adverse climatic cycle, Government has moved to calm a nervous agricultural sector, revealing that the nation is well prepared for a predicted Super El Niño phenomenon set to impact the 2026/27 summer cropping season.
In an interview, the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development, Dr Anxious Masuka, outlined a robust multi-pronged strategy designed to protect the country’s food basket from the impending dry spell.
An El Niño phenomenon is a climate pattern characterised by the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
For southern Africa, it is a notorious agent of drought. Typically, the phenomenon disrupts normal rainfall patterns, leading to delayed onset of rains, prolonged mid-season dry spells and extreme heatwaves.
For agriculture, which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s economy and food security, an El Niño translates to stunted crops, reduced maize yields and pasture shortages for livestock.
Climatologists are warning that the 2026/27 cycle could be a “Super El Niño”, potentially rivalling the destructive events of 2015/16 and 1997/98, which devastated regional harvests.
Models indicate an 80 percent probability of occurrence, with Zimbabwe falling in the high-risk zone where arid conditions persist 65 percent of the time.
This prediction has raised alarms globally about potential humanitarian impacts.
However, Dr Masuka said Zimbabwe is not sleeping at the wheel.
He revealed that the Government has already drafted mitigation and adaptation scenarios, which will be presented to Cabinet before a nationwide rollout.
“Well, the climatologists tell us that there is an 80 percent probability of an El Niño, and when that happens, 65 percent of the time we do have an El Niño in Zimbabwe.”
“Super El Niño is predicted; as a Government, we are very prepared. We have prepared some scenarios for mitigation, for adaptation, and more concretely, we will be presenting this to Cabinet before sharing with the rest of the nation, but Zimbabwe is very well prepared,” said Dr Masuka.
He added that climate-proofing agriculture is already under way through the sustainable, intensive conservation agriculture model.
“You already know that our agro-ecological tailoring is entrenched. What is grown by a farmer is not determined by what they want; what is grown by a farmer is determined by the exigencies of that agro-natural region,” said Dr Masuka.
“We are also accelerating dam construction to add to the 10 600 dams that we have in the country, and accelerating irrigation development so that we can reach 496 000 hectares by 2030,” he said.
Despite the looming threat, Zimbabwe has recorded significant strides towards food security.
Dr Masuka said the area under irrigation has increased by 66 percent between 2017 and 2025, insulating farmers from rain-fed volatility.
Furthermore, the Government is promoting a shift towards drought-tolerant livestock, including indigenous breeds, to ensure meat and milk production continues even when rains fail.
“We have made so much progress. We certainly can do more to climate-proof our agriculture. In this, in crops, we can also do more in livestock by focusing on smaller and more drought-tolerant species, our indigenous breeds that are more adaptable to our own conditions.
“So there is so much that we will be laying out this year for the nation in the coming weeks,” Dr Masuka said.
With over 10 600 dams already in place and aggressive irrigation expansion on track, Zimbabwe is banking on engineering and science to defy the coming dry spell.
