Chronicle Editor
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
IN the distant past, a number of communities in the countryside were living pretty well off their communal pieces of land where they could harvest enough for consumption and a surplus for sale without worries of lacking.
Rainfall distribution was even and the timing was almost uniformly definite. Drought years then have a defined circle and with the benefit of foresight, the years were adequately prepared for.
In recent years however, owing to the effects of climate change, the sky has been very unpredictable. The sun has been rising with a fierce cruelty, throwing its rays at the brown earth and licking every drop of dew with an unrestrained glee and giving nothing in return.
And when it rains, the rains are usually cyclonic and associated with flash flooding destroying both crops and infrastructure. This is usually followed by a hot spell that leaves communities hopeless and with a food deficit headache.
This has been happening year-in and year-out living not only Zimbabwe but the Sub-Saharan Africa region reeling from the adverse effects of climate change that have caused output in the agriculture sector to decline.
And the Government has been always the last stop in the intervention hierarchy where it would import and distribute food to the vulnerable households.
Things are however, likely going to change as the Government recently introduced a new farming concept called “Pfumvudza” to maximise productivity per unit area, even during drought periods and provide the much needed shocks against climate change-induced food shortages.
Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement Co-Deputy Minister, Douglas Karoro thinks the concept, if properly rolled out, can ensure household and national food security that will put a stop to grain imports and let resources be channelled towards other important things.
He said in a recent interview with Sunday News that the concept involves the utilisation of small pieces of land and applying the correct agronomic practices for an improved agricultural production.
The approach, according to the concept paper, can be used in marginal areas and still give high yields allowing smallholder farmers to achieve household food security, while large-scale farmers can produce for the strategic grain reserve.
Its three key basic principles are that it uses minimum or zero tillage, it emphasises on the maintenance of organic mulch cover on the soil surface and it involves the use of crop rotations and interactions that include legume crops.
“The concept of Pfumvudza is basically a way of climate proofing our agriculture. Fundamentally this is conservation farming. The practice seeks to conserve moisture and to reduce soil losses through erosion. There is very little disturbance to the soil as only holing out is done.
“A key component to the concept is the covering of the plot with leaves or any dead plant material as mulch to avoid excessive moisture loss,” said Deputy Minister Karoro.
He added that the concept was a crop production intensification approach that allows farmers to concentrate resources and expend energy on a small land unit to facilitate optimum management resulting in increased productivity.
The deputy minister said farmer trainings were underway and the farmers were excited with the concept that the Government has committed to support through timeous inputs provision to avoid unnecessary delays.
“Farmer training is currently underway and our farmers are excited with the new concept and raring to go. Inputs distribution has already started. We want to make sure every farmer has their inputs by latest mid-September. No more late distribution of inputs as this was letting down most of our farmers,” he added.
He noted that climate change had led to frequent droughts and limited precipitation. Pfumvudza will therefore help to conserve the little precipitation through mulching and harvesting it in the dug-out holes. He urged the farmers to do early land preparation so that they plant their crop with the first effective rains adding that the food security plots should, where possible, be placed near water sources for easy access to supplementary irrigation water.
And for purposes of nutrition and crop rotation the concept encourages that farmers prepare two plots, one for cereals (maize or small grains) and another one for legumes thus providing a protein source to complement the cereal.
Agritex principal agronomist in Matabeleland North Province Davison Masendeke said it was encouraging that Government was coming up with concepts aimed at improving agriculture production to avert food insufficiency.
He said the concept was not really new as some communities were already doing it although it was spearheaded by various NGOs that were into agriculture as part of conservation farming methods that sought to adapt them to climate change realities.
“Pfumvudza is a conservation farming concept that is not really new in some of the country’s communities. It has been practised under different names but the principles are fairly the same. The difference is that now it is the Government taking the initiative and making it national where it was done through NGOs in small selected communities.
“The concept is therefore a sustainable way of crop production intensification whereby farmers concentrate resources on a smaller piece of land reducing labour demand and resulting in higher productivity from lower investment, hence higher profit margins,” said Mr Masendeke.
He explained the concept further saying reducing tillage operations has an impact of reducing moisture loss from inner soil layers and improves the soil structure in the long term, resulting in improved water infiltration. Zero or limited tillage is encouraged.
He stressed the need for moisture. “The most limiting factor in crop growth is moisture. There is need therefore to create a micro-catchment to minimise run-off evaporation and keep moisture available,” he said.
This according to him can be made possible by the presence of a mulch that minimises the impact of intense rainfall on the soil, thereby further reducing water run-off and soil erosion. The mulch also minimises compaction by intense rainfall, reduces temperature fluctuations at the soil surface and also smothers weeds.
Mr Masendeke said the inclusion of legume-based rotations helps to improve soil fertility, reduces pest infestations and minimises total crop loss during severe weather occurrences while emphasis should also be put on nutrients where organic or non-organic fertilisers could be applied.
He added that there was an encouraging buy-in of the Pfumvudza concept from the communities saying if rolled out as planned, it could be a game-changer in the country’s agriculture where food insecurity would be a thing of the past as it provide farmers with climate change adaptation techniques that are environmentally friendly.
Bongani Ndlovu