Online Reporter
Theseus Mauruki Shambare
THE United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun activating anticipatory measures to cushion Zimbabwean farmers against the potential effects of a forecast Super El Niño, marking a shift from emergency response towards long-term resilience building.
Speaking after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between WFP and the Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange (ZMX) in Harare on Wednesday, WFP Zimbabwe Representative and Country Director Ms Barbara Clemens said the organisation’s global weather monitoring systems had triggered early preparedness measures following indications of a possible Super El Niño next year.
She said WFP, working through its anticipatory action framework with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), was already engaging farmers and communities before the anticipated shock occurs.
“We participate in the early warning and anticipatory action,” said Ms Clemens.
“What has triggered recently in some of the locations that we expect a Super El Niño is that now we have to start anticipatory action.”
She said the interventions include strengthening farmer awareness, promoting drought preparedness and encouraging farming practices that can minimise the impact of prolonged dry spells.
“It could mean helping them to set aside extra crops, switch to more resilient crops like sorghum and undertake other measures that thrive better in drought conditions,” she said.
Ms Clemens said the organisation’s approach is to act before disaster strikes rather than waiting for communities to require humanitarian assistance.
She said the newly signed partnership with ZMX complements that strategy by strengthening systems that enable farmers to safely store agricultural produce, reduce post-harvest losses and access structured markets.
She said resilient food systems depend not only on increased production but also on functioning markets, strong institutions and reliable storage infrastructure.
“The Government of Zimbabwe wants to transform itself into an agricultural powerhouse and it takes systems like that to be able to do it at scale,” she said.
ZMX chief executive officer Mr Collen Tapfumaneyi said the partnership would reinforce WFP’s resilience-building interventions by empowering farmers to become self-sufficient instead of relying on emergency assistance.
“Such interventions can also benefit a lot from a partnership of this nature because there are two ways of intervening in times of need — either handouts or capacitating the beneficiary to be self-sufficient,” he said.
Mr Tapfumaneyi said the partnership would strengthen warehouse receipt systems, improve access to finance and expand structured markets, allowing farmers to preserve produce during good seasons and use it during periods of scarcity.
“By having this partnership with ZMX, the plan and idea is that let’s also intervene by way of capacitating the farmers. If they have abundance and we’re having a Super El Niño coming, what means and ways can they use to store their produce for the time that there will be need? “That brings in warehouse receipt systems, financing systems and access to markets.
He said the collaboration would not only strengthen farmers but also improve the infrastructure that supports agricultural production.
“So we foresee a situation where through this partnership our interventions are going to be enhanced in terms of long-term resilience building amongst the farmers and amongst the institutions and the infrastructure that we use,” said Mr Tapfumaneyi.
“We are not just looking at the farmer, but we are looking at the infrastructure. Do we have capacity in handling commodities across warehouses, the preservation of commodities, the handling, the grading? All that capacity building eventually trickles down to assist our smallholder farmers.”
Mr Tapfumaneyi said investing in stronger agricultural systems today would enable Zimbabwe to better withstand future climate-related shocks while contributing to national food security and sustainable rural livelihoods.
