Online Reporter
Lawrence K. Tsuro
Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector, the lifeblood of its economy has just emerged from a record harvest.
The 2025-2026 season produced 2,82 million tonnes of maize. However, that triumph may be short-lived. Climate forecasting centres place an 88 to 94 percent probability of a super El Niño developing during the 2026-2027 rainy season, with an 80 percent likelihood of severe drought across Southern Africa.
For a country where more cropland remains rain-fed, such forecasts are existential threats to food security and rural livelihoods. Thus, amid this crisis comes a historic opportunity.
Zimbabwe can transform its farming by leveraging time-tested Persian water-management systems and embracing contemporary agricultural mechanisation, particularly through technical cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Foundation of indigenous wisdom
Zimbabwe is not beginning from scratch. The nation has a rich history of water management developed over centuries. The inhabitants of Great Zimbabwe (11th-17th century), who supported 10 000 to 18 000 people in a drought-prone environment, created an integrated water system centered on “dhaka pits”, enormous closed depressions that absorbed surface runoff and exploited the granite terrain’s hydrology.
This heritage endures. In order to significantly reduce evaporation, farmers in Gwanda’s Manama Communal Area built the “Manama” infield rainwater collection facility, which directs rainfall via dead-level contours into covered subterranean tanks of five to 20 cubic meters.
Using the termites’ tubes for quick percolation, a small-scale farmer in Mwenezi can direct rainfall into pits excavated atop termite mounds. Communities in Hwange are currently constructing subterranean tanks that hold more than 10 000 litres.
Other customs include “bani irrigation”, which employs naturally saturated swamp depressions to support smallholder horticulture, and “Phiri-pits” named after the renowned indigenous permaculturalist, Mr Zephaniah Phiri from Zvishavane, which are contour trenches with holes that collect water and aid in its infiltration into the soil.
These methods demonstrate a profound comprehension of collaborating with nature to secure water.
Persian wisdom for modern challenges
The 2 500-year-old Persian hydro-engineering marvel known as Qanat has the potential to completely transform Zimbabwe’s water-scarce areas. A qanat is a subterranean conduit that transfers groundwater from higher terrain to lower-lying areas using just gravity and a mild gradient.
A qanat system consists of several interconnected components. At its upstream end, a mother well is sunk into the saturated zone of an aquifer, typically at the base of a mountain or alluvial fan, to a depth that may range from 10 to 250 metres. From the mother well, a gently sloping tunnel with a semi-elliptical cross-section approximately 1,2 metres in height and 0,8 metres in width is excavated through the aquifer’s phreatic zone.
This water-producing section collects groundwater, which then flows by gravity through the water-transport section to the surface outlet. The gradient of the tunnel must be carefully adjusted; if it is too steep, the water will flow with enough force to induce erosion and tunnel collapse; if it is too shallow, the water will stagnate. Generally speaking, a slope of 0,3 to 0,5 percent is ideal.
Vertical access shafts are dug every 20-200 meters along the tunnel’s length. These shafts provide for ventilation, the evacuation of excavated waste, and access for periodic maintenance. The waste from these shafts forms the unique doughnut-shaped rings that distinguish qanat lines when viewed from above.
Relevance to Zim environment
The system requires a higher-elevation aquifer, adequate slope, and permeable rocks. Zimbabwe’s Sabi Valley aquifers produce up to 200 litres per second per borehole, while the Limpopo Valley yields up to 300 litres.
The Shashani sand river in Matabeleland South has an estimated volume of 23,9 million cubic meters, with recharge ranging from 227 to 843 million cubic meters. However, granite and metamorphic rocks, which occupy over 60 percent of Zimbabwe, have lower groundwater potential, with typical borehole outputs of around two cubic meters per hour.
These places could benefit from artificial recharge, which redirects surface runoff underground during rainy seasons to replenish aquifers for dry-season abstraction.
Benefits compared to traditional infrastructure
In contrast to huge dams, which are expensive and have high evaporation, qanats adapt to the local topography. They run on gravity and do not require fuel, making them sustainable.
There are very few evaporation losses. Compared to boreholes, which have a lifespan of roughly 20 years, qanats have a lifespan of centuries. There is less salinity and better water quality.
Through collective management, they promote social cohesion. Longer growing seasons, more varied cropping, less labour hardship, and the capacity to withstand El Niño shocks without losing entire harvests are all benefits for rural populations and peri-urban areas when subterranean water harvesting and sophisticated agricultural machinery are applied together.
Ancient hydro-engineering is only part of the story. Iran has also created advanced modern agricultural water management technology that might be tailored to Zimbabwe’s needs.
Its Agricultural Research, Education, and Extension Organization (AREEO), the largest national agricultural research agency in the Middle East and operated by Iran’s Ministry of Agriculture, employs hyperspectral remote sensing to monitor soil health, plant condition, and water availability.
Sensors collect hundreds of wavelength bands, much like fingerprints, to disclose organic materials, salinity, moisture, and contaminants without drilling. This detects water stress, monitors water bodies, and calculates evaporation.
Combining modernity, traditional influence
Zimbabwe’s traditional farming methods do not need to be abandoned in order to move away from reliance on rain. Conversely, the most long-lasting solutions will integrate established technologies from other dry civilizations with indigenous expertise from Great Zimbabwe’s “dhaka pits” to Mwenezi’s termite-mound inventions.
A real-world example of this hybrid technique may be seen in Iran’s own history, where qanats have supported agriculture for centuries and are now enhanced by contemporary irrigation, satellite monitoring, and smart farming technologies.
So far, bilateral relations between Zimbabwe and Iran have improved significantly in recent years, and mutual goodwill serves as a solid framework for further technical cooperation. Thus, sustained investment in technical education, local manufacturing collaborations, and community-based water governance will be critical.
Development partners, regional agencies, and financial institutions can play a catalytic role in promoting knowledge-sharing platforms and co-financing infrastructure that benefit entire communities. The goal is not dependency, but rather empowered self-reliance.
As the 2026-2027 season approaches, with its dire El-Nino forecast, Zimbabwe has a narrow but practical window to act decisively. However, combining old Persian knowledge and current Iranian engineering with Zimbabwe’s own rich tradition, farmers can see beyond the clouds and be confident that their farms will thrive no matter what the sky sends.
The era of passive, rain-fed sustenance is coming to an end. In its place emerges a future of mechanised, water-secure, and active agriculture that honours the past while embracing tomorrow’s innovations.
Lawrence Tsuro is a development practitioner with interest in agriculture.
