Zim taking pride of place in the world

IN early March this year, Zimbabwe was spared the wrath of yet another weather-related disaster, when Cyclone Freddy dissipated without making as devastating an impact as Cyclone Idai in 2019, which claimed more than 300 lives.

Malawi, however, was not so lucky.

All told, more than 1 000 people were killed in a storm that also washed away homes, roads and other critical infrastructure.

These weather calamities, which are worryingly increasing in frequency and regularity, are a graphic illustration of the reality of climate change.

Over the past five years, Zimbabwe, like other countries in the region and beyond, has hopped from one unseasonably dry or rainy season to the other, making planning difficult and agricultural output unpredictable.

The 2018/2019 season, which was affected by the worst drought in 40 years, is instructive, as it restricted our maize harvest to little more than 770 000 tonnes.

Production recovered spectacularly in 2017, when maize output jumped to 2,7 million — the highest since the early 1980s.

But Zimbabwe is not only facing threats from climate change, but also sanctions that were designed to hollow out the country’s internal capacities and capabilities in order to collapse the Government.

These incredible threats precisely make the country’s current success story in agriculture remarkable.

Last week, the Government indicated that it would be exporting maize to Rwanda — the first such development in 22 years — and was also considering requests from other countries such as the Democratic Republic Congo. This is an emphatic symbolic step that shows that Zimbabwe is gradually taking its pride of place as a major food supplier in the region.

Such a milestone — particularly in the wake of attempts by some hostile foreign states to frustrate our efforts, as well as increasingly unfavourable weather conditions — indicates that our success is not fortuitous.

Throughout his election campaign in 2018, President Mnangagwa promised that the country would achieve food security.

“We want to say bye bye to nzara (hunger),” was his popular refrain at various gatherings.

Fittingly, in January, he was invited to the Dakar 2 Summit on Agriculture and Agribusiness in Senegal to share some nuggets, especially coming from a country that was revelling in the achievement of a record wheat crop.

In fact, Zimbabwe had just joined Ethiopia as the two countries in Africa that were wheat self-sufficient.

“In Zimbabwe, we had the problem of food insecurity and we said, how much food do we want in a year to feed our nation and the figure we got was two million tonnes of grain,” said President Mnangagwa at the summit.

“So, we said, because there is climate change, how many hectares of land can we put under irrigation to produce two million-plus tonnes to feed the nation and we determined how much yield from a hectare, hence we knew the figures and we did that and we are now food-secure.”

The country is saving millions in import substitution, and most importantly, rural incomes and, with them, livelihoods are improving, helping to lift households out of poverty.

Elsewhere in this paper, we carry a story about an elderly couple in Mudzi district, Mashonaland East, whose fortunes have changed for the better such that they now lead a comfortable life.

They heeded Government’s call to grow traditional grains, which was only reasonable as the area is drought-prone, and they have since diversified into fish production, among many other agro-linked pursuits. Their success is self-evident.

They now boast two grinding mills, an electrified traditional kitchen hut that has chromadek roofing and an impressive livestock herd.

And this makes Zimbabwe’s success story impressive, as growth in agriculture is closely tied with improved livelihoods. This is the same strategy and model that enabled China — now the world’s second-biggest economy — to lift more than 800 million people out of poverty in 40 years.

The ongoing aggressive drive to increase the hectarage under irrigation through the Smallholder Irrigation Revitalisation Programme, as well as the Rural Development Programme, means output will continue to increase in the foreseeable future and many will be lifted out of poverty.

Zimbabwe is rising.