Hilda Kusena has silenced critics with the success of her co-operative by forming a partnership with International Development Enterprise (IDE Zimbabwe). Her aim is to empower female farmers to maximise their profits.

As a widow with four school-age children of her own, and three others left in her care by family members, Kusena faced a daunting task as the family’s sole financial provider. Although she owned six cows – three heifers and three female calves – she could not afford to care for them all while supporting her seven children, so she sought assistance from IDE-Zimbabwe to form a co-operative and establish the heifer pass-on scheme.

She said: “I decided to keep two of the cows and give the other four to women in our cooperative. The members agreed that when the cows began having calves, they would each keep one female and give any others that were born back to me.” The cooperative would raise and sell the male calves, but would give the females to other women in the group, so as to continue the cycle.

The cooperative idea has proved to be a huge success. It not only provides an income for other women in the group to enable them to pay for their children’s education, it also provides the community with a much needed access to a local dairy. And over the years, Kusena’s own seven children have completed secondary school, two have graduated from college and another two are currently enrolled in tertiary education courses.

Gender discrimination

Kusena recalled many instances where she faced gender-based discrimination. “Soon after I founded Kwayedza Women’s Cooperative a donor presented us with a car to facilitate our milk deliveries to the nearest town Rusape. But, the men in the community openly mocked the donation,” she explained.

“In their minds, they thought that as women we were incapable of managing a business without a man’s help, let alone run a vehicle. But, as a cooperative we proved them wrong,” she said.

Just two years after its inception, the cooperative was doing so well that members were able to use their profits to build an office at Chiware business Centre. “Gradually, the men began to respect me and the members of the cooperative and they were forced to admit that we were not only successfully running our cooperative, but, we were actually prospering,” she said.

Despite being told that she would never succeed in business 18 years ago, Kusena knew she had a greater calling. “If there is one thing that I have learned from my experience, it is that every woman should trust in herself; a woman can be a leader wherever she is,” she said.

Although the cooperative was very successful, the women faced many stumbling blocks along the way. Without a cooling tank, their milk would often spoil, which would diminish their income. IDE Zimbabwe provided the women with a 1,300-liter cooling tank. Not only did this prevent their milk from spoiling, but it also allowed them to collect milk twice a day, which enabled them to double their daily milk collections from 50 to 100 liters per day.

The co-operative members are currently planning to open their own processing plant in Bomang’ombe later this year.

Theresa Gonde, the administrator, said they were chipping away at entrenched gender constraints. “As women, we receive direct payments for the milk we sell, which is a huge step forward in a culture where men are responsible for household financial assets,” she explained. “We derive an incredible sense of self-worth and pride from earning an income from our labour.”

The way forward

In an interview with The Zimbabwean recently, the IDE- Zimbabwe programmes director Grace Ndebele said since the organisation began providing development assistance, it has been capitalising on the experience and relationships with women’s cooperatives like the 12-member Kwayedza Women’s Cooperative to improve commercial milk production and processing, so that women can support themselves and enjoy an improved quality of life.

Ndebele strongly believes in the power of the cooperatives as a way to empower women, and she is particularly proud to know that her organisation has encouraged and inspired other women to take control of their economic future and rethink traditional gender roles.

She stressed: “Women should be examples of success. We are not here to receive help, but to help others. We are an organisation seeking to address the needs of communities by working alongside them to identify the root causes of poverty.”

Ndebele said their community development projects aim to produce benefits that are sustainable, that is, benefits that will continue after assistance has ended.

“We provide the tools for sustainable projects, to train people and to enable them to achieve their full potential, beyond the project completion,” she explained. “We act as builders for communities to work to their strengths, and develop their own solutions to specific problems they face.”

Climate change has seen Zimbabwe experiencing prolonged droughts, extended dry seasons, extreme hot summers and cold winters.

These sporadic changes in weather have had an effect on the strategies adopted by women in communal farming and how they use renewable energy sources. According to the SADC Gender Protocol Barometer Zimbabwe 2015, launched at the Gender Protocol Work Summit earlier this week, 59% of rural women in Zimbabwe work in communal lands and so they are most affected by changes in climate since they rely on rainfall for their livelihoods and domestic use.

The National Gender Policy calls for increased responsiveness to: the environment; natural resource management strategies; and adaptation and mitigation initiatives to climate change.

Several strategies have been adopted to achieve these goals and these include reviewing environmental policies and strategies to identify gaps and address gender gaps. Collecting data which highlights how climate changes have deepened inequality among women and men and possible solutions are another strategy.

The last strategy seeks to ensure gender responsive national level strategies for climate induced disaster management, risk reduction and coping mechanisms.

The Barometer notes that for climate change solutions to be truly effective, women must be included at all stages of policy and strategy development. This means that women must be included at decision making tables when stakeholders develop strategies and action plans. Through the SADC Gender Protocol ((SGP) numerous programmes have been implemented nationwide and these are aimed at finding integrated solutions to the effects of climate change and gender mainstreaming.

The city of Kadoma is one such programme. It has implemented a strategy which they hope will not only curb the effects of climate change but also incorporate them into maternal health issues. The project involves planting of an indigenous tree for every live birth at Rimuka maternity home. On top of mitigating climate change, this project also aims at increasing the number of live births at the clinic by a professional midwife, promoting male involvement in antenatal care and improving maternal services. Against ongoing efforts to reduce the maternal mortality ratio, this is commendable.

The Barometer notes that women, especially those in rural communal lands, need to be trained and made aware of various strategies put in place not only by local governments, NGOs as well as the involvement of women and girls to improve their welfare and livelihoods. Women and men should have equal access to climate change financing vehicles which have been made available by SADC.

The Fatherhood Peace project, an initiative from the Zimunya-Marange District, aims at helping residents around the Marange area to cope with the immense drought seasons. Regis Manjoro, the founder said the area experiences extreme temperatures and so the project trains the residents of the area on breeding livestock that is resilient to drought like indigenous goats and chickens.

“89% of the women in the community have directly participated in the project. We have begun training women on how to breed indigenous goats and chickens. We also train people on consolidated gardening and people grow sustainable crops like sweet potatoes, cassava and magogoya, which can be grown throughout the year,” said Manjoro.

Although Zimbabwe does not have a complete and official national climate change policy, the country has adopted a National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS) which provides the framework for addressing climate change and also for public education and awareness. The country has also started consultations to develop the National Climate Change strategy which under the SGP post 2015 agenda must have more women involvement in the development of climate policies and strategies as women are the most affected by the sporadic weather patterns in Zimbabwe.

The main concerns in the SGP post 2015 agenda are: women attaining 50% representation in decision making; 50 percent allocation of assets and natural resources which sustain their livelihoods; involvement of women in strategy formulations and disaster management; and establishment of gender responsive legislation on climate change and disasters.

By 2030, the government should have made notable strides to ensure that poor communities have access to sustainable technology to promote cleaner burning fuels. Notable reductions in deforestation and forest degradation, gender sensitive training and education and awareness on climate change are other targets. The public media should play a significant role in sharing information on gender dimensions of climate change and how women can contribute and benefit from sustainable development.

The findings of the Barometer 2015 are still preliminary and more research must be done to identify the specific effects climate change has had on women in Zimbabwe and how the government and NGOs can work together to try and mitigate these problems and create long lasting solutions for women and children, who are most adversely affected.

• This article is part of the Gender Links News Service special coverage of the SADC Gender Protocol Summits underway across the region, offering fresh views on everyday news.

The lives of communal farmers in the drought-prone Filabusi district in Zhulube are a perennial struggle. They survive on the scanty yields from their maize plots, occasionally augmented with handouts from the government and aid agencies. PAMENUS TUSO REPORTS.

“Life has been so hard for us here. Year in year out, we have been toiling in our fields – but the harvest has been eluding us because of poor rainfall,” said Miriam Ngulube.

The inception of Zhulube irrigation scheme, seven kilometres west of Mahole business centre in Filabusi, eventually brought relief to villagers by providing some food for their tables. But the project was sadly not a panacea for their financial woes.

So in order to earn extra money, co-operative members recently introduced aquaculture at the irrigation scheme. The newly-formed Zhulube Fish Production and Marketing Cooperative seeks to enhance crop and livestock production while at the same time providing a holistic diet – thus boosting household income and food security.

Fish ponds

“The fish production venture is basically a diversification of our irrigation project. Under this pilot project, we have established fish ponds in the irrigation scheme as a food security, income generation and livelihood initiative,” said Lukamba Mhlanga, the cooperative’s secretary. The cooperative recently secured a breeding stock of about 3 500 bream fish fingerlings from Kariba. So far two ponds with a total area of 2000m2 have been stocked with Nile bream fingerlings while the construction of another pond is still at excavation level.

“After six months, we are expecting that the two fish ponds will produce a total fish tonnage of almost 1, 200 kg .We are planning to sell the bream either fresh or dried. Our target market is mainly surrounding schools, restaurants, hospitals and the local market,” said the secretary.

Lucrative projects

Division of Livestock Production and Development (DLPD) Insiza district livestock specialist, Sarah Disman, said her department was currently exploring more integrated projects to go along with the fishery project.

“We want to train and encourage the farmers to venture into more complementary and lucrative projects such as broiler, dairy, honey production as well as orchard farming. The linkage between these projects has very important and significant benefits,” said Disman. The livestock specialist said droppings from the broilers fed to the fish in dissolved form are a source of nutrients for the fish while offal from slaughtered fish are fed to the broilers to supplement the regular feeds.

“In return residues are fed to fish and waste water from fish ponds can be used to irrigate crops and orchard trees while bees can collect nectar from the citrus trees to produce honey. Under the same concept crop residues can be used to feed dairy cows,” explained Disman.

Excited

Members of the cooperative are optimistic about the integrated farming projects and are confident that come February 2016, when they expect their first fish harvest, they will all be heading to the banks with smiles on their faces. “I am particularly excited about the fishery project because it is less laborious and not expensive to run. Through this venture, we are hoping to raise money for school fees for our children well as improve our diet” said Stabile Nyathi, a member of the cooperative.

Another cooperative member, Dorica Moyo said she is confident the projects will alleviate the financial woes facing the farmers as a result of the current economic challenges.

The Zhulube Aquaculture project is part of the $4,5 million European Commission (EC) funded four-year “Integrated and Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture Production for Improved Food Security for Vulnerable Households in Zimbabwe programme.

There are similar projects in eight other districts across the country including Binga, Kariba, Insiza, Umzingwane, Masvingo, Beitbridge, Mwenezi and Hwange districts . The project is jointly implemented by World Vision, Basilizwi Trust and Aquaculture Zimbabwe. It will end in October 2017.

World Vision operations director, Khumbulani Ndlovu, said the project seeks to improve the food security of 9 000 vulnerable households by creating a source of food and income, reducing their dependency on humanitarian assistance.

The project will also improve the nutrition and health of indirect and direct beneficiaries including children and pregnant women.

The department of veterinary services has admitted that it has failed to deal with the foot-and-mouth outbreak in the southern part of the country, which has claimed the lives of thousands of livestock.

The authorities have suspended all movement of cattle until further notice, and has banned the exhibition of livestock at the country’s major events like agriculture shows.

Masvingo provincial veterinary officer, Enerst Dzimwasha, confirmed that they had failed to deal with the disease, which is wreaking havoc in some areas. “We have failed to eradicated the disease because we do not have enough manpower, nor do we have proper methods of limiting the spread of the disease,” said Dzimwasha. “We will continue with our fighting spirit but to be honest we have failed to deal with the disease.”

Villagers in several parts of Masvingo are losing dozens of cattle every month as they do not have enough money to buy the needed vaccines. “Here in Mwenezi we lost about 50 cattle in just one month and the situation is very worrying,” said farmer Fabain Matsilele.

Last year the government declared foot-and-mouth a national disaster and banned the movement and sale of cattle in the affected areas. All public cattle auction sales were also suspended.

It was all smiles as Bertha Chibhememe of Sangwe communal area in Chiredzi, south eastern Zimbabwe, showed off her traditional seed varieties at a seed fair. A 45-year-old smallholder in Zimbabwe's lowveld region, Chibhememe told how her "nzara yapera" maize variety is thriving in a changing climate.

The name means “hunger is gone” and is traditionally peculiar to the Shangani people, explained Chibhememe, a widow who looks after eight school-going children. It allows her to protect her family from starvation in a region where it can seem impossible to survive without food aid or donations.

Many people are now shunning traditional seeds in favour of modern genetic hybrid varieties, but Chibhememe said nzara yapera grew better in dry conditions.

“That is my secret,” she added. “This traditional short season maize variety together with other traditional small grains like sorghum, millet and rapoko are the best in this area. They secure our future food and nutrition for our families. We receive low rainfall and frequent flash floods and extreme temperatures.”

Bertha’s example has invigorated community members to adapt to shifting weather patterns as the planet warms. Through traditional seed fairs and workshops, farmers have a platform to share best farming practices.

A recent study by Care International-Zimbabwe found that female farmers were more receptive to these ideas than their male counterparts. But they could not always use such information to their advantage due to a culture of male dominance of the household. Women did not get to decide what crops to grow and when.

This is proving to be a setback in the quest to embrace climate change adaptation techniques. But it is slowly changing, as the Zimbabwean government has started issuing land rights to women smallholders, previously a taboo.

Records show that Zimbabwe is already feeling the effects of climate change, notably with more variable rainfall and extreme weather. Barnabas Mawire, country director for regional organisation Environment Africa described the situation as worrisome.

“These conditions, combined with warming trends, are expected to render land increasingly marginal for agriculture, which poses a major threat to the economy and the livelihoods of the people,” said Mawire.

Zimbabwe depends heavily on rain-fed agriculture and climate sensitive resources. Farmers, who make up 62% of the population, are expected to feel the effects.

Yields from rain-fed farming in Africa could halve by 2020, according to a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Semi-arid and arid areas will be worse affected, raising the risk of malnutrition and hunger.

Micro community initiatives can help, however. A water harvesting system in the Zvishavane, Mberengwa and Chivi districts, some of the hottest and driest in Zimbabwe, is one. It is as simple as digging pits to capture water in the rainy season and save it for drier periods.

A communal farmer in Zvishavane, Akwenziwe Maseko, said water conservation was essential to get strong crop yields. Farmers had been able to keep vegetable gardens going for more of the year and have more secure food supplies.

Zephaniah Phiri, a local conservationist who championed the water harvesting idea, stressed the importance of sustainable ways of managing and exploiting natural resources. Measures like planting vativa grass for windbreaks and sand traps were “very crucial,” he said.

Environmental Management Agency midlands manager Benson Bhasera added there was a link between sustainable farming practices and environmental preservation.

“Farmers who yield highly in their fields actively implement environmental education and awareness information,” said Bhasera.

With rainfall forecasts for the 2015/2016 farming season anticipated to be below normal, there is no time to lose.

*This story was sourced through the Voices2Paris UNDP storytelling contest on climate change and developed thanks to Megan Darby and Climate Home.

HARARE — Farmers in Zimbabwe say they have been forced to sell the seeds and fertilizers supplied by the government for the 2015-2016 planting season to avert a current hunger crisis. Diverting the farm supplies will have an effect beyond the agricultural industry.

At the height of Zimbabwe’s farming season, the Sanyati farming area some 250 kilometers southwest of Harare normally would produce lots of cotton. It is an important income-earning multi-purpose crop, spun into fabric for exports while its seeds are processed into cooking oil for local use. However, for many farmers that is no longer the case. Thirty-four-year-old farmer Titus Maphosa said cotton prices have declined so much it is now unprofitable.

He said that for years he has been growing cotton. But now, he said, it was causing hunger. He said he sold the fertilizer he received from the government for $20 a bag, others actually sold it for $10 a bag. “Others are putting it in their maize fields. We will not grow cotton,” he said.

After the government noticed a decline in cotton production in the Sanyati area over the past years — and a rise in the number of people asking for food handouts — it began giving free insecticides, herbicides, seed and fertilizer to farmers. But farmer Muteewa Majasi said that would not work unless the government addressed falling cotton prices.

He said, “the government must first tell us the price so that we can decide to take supplies or not. They might offer us a lower price than last season of three cents a kilogram, now they might offer us two cents or one cent. It is not clear. It’s help, but they are not being helpful.”

Majasi said farmers have no options and are being forced. The government might force them to sell at whatever price, since it gave them seeds and fertilizers. So, the government must first consult farmers on which crops they want to grow – whether it be maize or sorghum, he said.

A government official in the area – who requested anonymity to speak freely, concurs with the farmers. He said many take whatever the government offers because it is the only way to get a bag of fertilizer. He said the farmers would take the cotton seed, but not grow the crop and instead use the fertilizer for maize production.

But the official said that practice did not produce enough maize to stave off hunger and poverty in Zimbabwe.

This comes at a time when the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warns the southern African region faces the possibility of floods and droughts induced by the El Nino weather phenomenon – which is predicted to be the worst since 1997.

The United Nations says Zimbabwe is one of the countries with a food deficit, with more than a million people in need of food handouts.

ZANU PF supporters in Muzarabani and Dande areas are now selling maize seed and fertilizer donated to them under the ruling party’s Presidential Well Wishers Input Scheme in order to buy food for their starving families.

In interviews with this publication, many said they were left with no option as the rains have not come and they cannot start planting for the current farming season.

A 50kg fertilizer bag which normally costs about $30 is being sold for as little as $10 or less.

The current dry spell has made life difficult for many as they are forced to travel several kilometres to fetch water for their livestock as well as for domestic use.

“We are now going to Mt Darwin Shopping Centre to sell the farming inputs we received from the Zanu PF leadership so that we can buy food for our families,” said village head Simon Mudzengerere.

“Even if we keep them (seed and fertilizer) what benefit will they give me and my family?”

Along local roads in the Dande area, villagers can be seen stopping passing vehicles and asking if they want to buy the seed and fertilizer.

“We do not display the inputs at road-side as some Zanu PF youths sometimes harass us for selling them,” said another villager who only wanted to be identified as Madzimbamuto.

At Chiswiti Shopping Centre, Christopher Mudzviti said the ruling party should consider giving them farming inputs that are suitable for the area.

“Here we need short grain; short season varieties but they just give us maize seed only and when they get back to Harare they start talking about small grain,” he said.

Last year the Zanu PF leadership said $28 million was set aside to buy 2015/16 farming inputs that were going to be distributed to more than 300,000 small scale farmers around the country.

The scheme is seen by many as a stop-gap measure as the government owned Grain Marketing Board (GMB) is failing to pay farmers on time so that they can buy their own farming inputs.

Opposition parties also complain that the largely state-funded input support schemes are usually only distributed to Zanu PF supporters.

As over 1.5 million people - over 16% of the population - in Zimbabwe face food insecurity this year, which is an increase of 164% compared to the previous season, one can not help but wonder if this is solely as a result of drought or there are other factors involved.

Statistics released by the World Food Programme (WFP) on the situation in Zimbabwe are nothing short of disturbing, as 28% of children under the age of five years are said to be stunted – have heights too low for their age because of malnutrition.

It is also reported that 56% of all children between the ages of six and 59 months suffer from anaemia, whilst less than 17.3% of Zimbabwe children between six and 23 months receive recommended minimum acceptable diet for adequate nutrition.

So what could be the root cause of all this?

There are so many factors involved in a nation becoming food deficient, but in Zimbabwe, the main reasons are the very disastrous economic and political policies by the President Robert Mugabe-led ZANU PF government since 1980.

Zimbabweans have over the course of history been made to believe that the armed liberation struggle of the 1960s and 70s was primary about Black majority rule and land.

During colonialism, the vast majority of arable land was confined to a very few White people, whilst the majority of Black people were crammed into small arid unproductive areas.

The liberation struggle was meant to resolve such ‘colonial imbalances’, but what was the result?

At the Lancaster House conference of 1979, the ZANU PF party agreed to a compromise that defied all logic.

Why after the loss of thousands of innocent men, women, and children in a war that put land at the core of the struggle, and then at end of it all compromise to have the land reclaimed after 10 years?

And even after the 10 years, the ZANU PF government never seemed at all serious about addressing these ‘historical imbalances’, as they played footsie on the land issue.

What was going on?

This week I had the good fortune of communicating with two renowned former cabinet ministers who served in the first government of the newly independent Zimbabwe, and were veterans of the struggle for the country.

One of these former ministers expressed his gravest disappointment with how everything fell apart at the Lancaster House conference, as that is when he realised the true intentions of his leaders.

He said that it was then that he realised that the so-called liberation struggle was never about the land or the people, but about individual power.

That is why at that conference there was no 10 year compromise on power, but there was a compromise on the land.

The leaders wanted to obtain power immediately, but the majority of the landless and economically disadvantaged majority could wait for another 10 years.

The ex-minister was close to tears as he expressed his regret at being part of the betrayal of the people of Zimbabwe – whilst the other ex-minister concurred, saying the manner in which ZANU PF ruled the country since 1980 was not what they fought for.

They proved to have been correct in their assertions, as the ZANU PF government ended up not waiting for 10 years to take the land issue seriously, but 20 years – leading to a panicky, impromptu, disastrous, and poorly planned land redistribution programme.

The way in which this land redistribution programme was so poorly carried out clearly showed that the ZANU PF government had not planned to redistribute land even in 2000 – and had no intention of doing so in the foreseeable future.

The only reason it embarked on that ill-planned disastrous programme was that the party’s leaders’ own grip on power was seriously under threat from the newly-formed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and they had to come up with something to save themselves with.

(The same applies to another panicky and ill-planned scheme, the war victims compensation and the pensions given to war veterans, as these people who bore the brunt of the liberation struggle had also been dumped and forgotten until they demonstrated in the mid-1990s.

Only then were they remembered – 15 years after independence.)

The lack of regard concerning the serious issue of the land and agriculture by the ZANU PF government is primarily why there is such food insecurity in Zimbabwe.

Had the government been serious about balancing the issues of redressing colonial imbalances and ensuring food security for the country, the 10 years that they had agreed to compromise on the land question at the Lancaster House conference would have been more than adequate to prepare the new farmers.

They could have used that time to identify and train those Black people who had the passion and capabilities to be great farmers.

There was time to work with interested commercial farmers who would train those identified Black potential farmers in the proper management of farms.

10 years would have been more than enough to properly identify underutilised arable land and earmark it for acquisition.

Similarly, 10 years would have been adequate in providing appropriate notices to any other farmers of the government’s intention in acquiring the farm, and thereby, putting in place measures that would have ensured a smooth and well-planned transfer.

The fact that all this was not done, clearly showed that the ZANU PF government was not planning at all to redistribute land.

Had it not been for the formation of the MDC, even today there would still had been no redistribution of land.

As such, the haphazard manner in which government carried out the redistribution programme – whereby untrained people were given previously productive commercial agricultural land to experiment with – is the main reason there is so much food insecurity in this country.

The other reason for the current food insecurity is the fact that the government never bothered with building any infrastructure that would cater for the eventuality of drought periods like this season.

No significant – if any – dams were built in most if those agricultural areas.

Most farmers still heavily rely on rain-fed agriculture, something that is tragically myopic in this age of global warming.

There has seldom been any season whereby there was a complete lack of significant total rainfall in this country, such that, had dams been constructed, there would have been enough water for irrigation.

Similarly, other policies, such as land tenure, that would have enabled farmers to borrow money from banks were not put in place, as such these farmers continually had to beg for inputs from the government – something clearly unsustainable.

Only 2,8 million hectares of land was cultivated in the 2014/15 agricultural season, out of a total of 4.3 million hectares of arable land in Zimbabwe.

Although most southern African counties are being adversely affected by this season’s El Nino-induced drought, there is no doubt that Zimbabwe is being affected more mainly due to these poor government policies – which has so callously turned a once prosperous bread basket of Africa into a basket case of Africa.

Zimbabwe is endowed with so much resources, minerals being some of the most outstanding – however plundering and poor policies have led to the majority of people not benefiting at all from these resources – only benefitting the powerful.

The government’s half-hearted and confused economic policies have also led to the majority of people in Zimbabwe living in abject poverty – with at least 76% of rural households, and 38% of urban dwellers, surviving on less than US$1.25 per day.

If the government had sincerely embarked on sound policies that seriously economically empowered the people, the effects of drought would hardly have been felt, as people would have been able to import their own food.

That is how people in arid/desert countries, like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc survive – we do not hear them crying about drought every year.

As such, the ZANU PF government needs to seriously look itself in the mirror and question its sincerity in serving the interests of the people of Zimbabwe.

If a government is so cruel towards its own people to such an extent of not caring whether they live or die, that is cause for extreme concern.

All politicians love power, but most, at least, take good care of their people, but ZANU PF’s love for power with utter contempt for the people is sickening to say the least – and it is time that the people also started questioning their allegiances.

° Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a community activist, communications specialist, journalist, and writer. He writes in his personal capacity, and welcomes feedback. Please call/WhatsApp: +263782283975, or email: tendaiandtinta.mbofana@gmail.com

SOUTH AFRICA, which is the continent’s biggest corn producer and is suffering the worst drought in memory, may need to help neighboring Zimbabwe with corn supplies as a drought cuts yields throughout the region, a grains and oilseeds farmers’ body said.

Zimbabwe will probably produce 200,000 metric tons, said Grain SA, South Africa’s largest representative of corn farmers, which cited data from South Africa’s Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy.

That would be the smallest crop since at least 1961, data from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization and the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed. The country needs 1.1 million tons to 2 million tons of corn in 2016-17.

Zimbabwe traditionally relies on South Africa and Zambia for corn, which is used to make a staple food.

Zimbabwe will probably produce 200,000 metric tons, said Grain SA, South Africa’s largest representative of corn farmers, which cited data from South Africa’s Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy.

That would be the smallest crop since at least 1961, data from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization and the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed. The country needs 1.1 million tons to 2 million tons of corn in 2016-17.

Zimbabwe traditionally relies on South Africa and Zambia for corn, which is used to make a staple food.

The biggest nation in the region last year suffered its lowest rainfall since records began in 1904, with Zambia stepping in to provide supplies to countries in the area, but dry spells have now also curbed agricultural output in Zambia, where the 2016 harvest may drop about 30 percent to the smallest since 2009.

South Africa may have to import 3.8 million tons of corn in the year to April 2017 as the drought cuts this year’s harvest to 7.44 million tons, the smallest since 2007.

Grain SA’s import estimate includes about 810,000 tons to be supplied to the SADC countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland, but doesn’t account for Zimbabwe’s needs because it estimated Zambia would fill the requirement.

“Zambia stocks are down, which lessens its ability to sufficiently supply regional markets,” said Wandile Sihlobo, an economist at Grain SA. “What all this means is that there will be additional pressure on the South African side.”

The broader region may have to import as much as 10.9 million tons of grains such as corn, wheat, and soybeans, according to Senzeni Zokwana, South Africa’s agriculture minister.

SHEPHERD Tavaruva, a previous Masvingo Farmer of the Year winner, says he won’t be adding to his medal tally any time soon.

Zimbabwe’s worst drought since the new millennium is driving farmers like Tavaruva off the land. The 34-year-old, who won the provincial accolade in 2006 and 2007, now runs a security company where he says the risk is lower.

“Do I miss the land? Yeah, big time,’’ Tavaruva, son of Masvingo businessman Tanda Tavaruva, said in an interview in the provincial capital. “But I am not going back until I have the right equipment – a proper irrigation system which will enable me to survive these mad weather patterns.’’

Zimbabwe is losing farmers at the same time it’s losing its industries, slashing economic output in a country with 80 percent unemployment and now facing its worst drought in more than three decades. This is, worsening hunger as the two sectors have traditionally worked in tandem, with farmers relying on industry for their inputs and equipment.

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries estimated industrial capacity utilization at 34 percent in 2015, down 23 percentage points from 2012 due to antiquated machinery and lack of capital. The government says it’s now rationalizing farm ownership ahead of an audit of the land reform programme it claims saw some 300,000 families resettled on about 14.5 million hectares.

The bulk of Zimbabwe’s 2015/2016 crop has already been written off by the government which has now appealed for international assistance to help feed close to three million people facing hunger in the country. They are part of 15 million people threatened by an El Nino induced famine in southern Africa.

Even those farmers that replanted in January are facing a bleak harvest after most parts of the country went dry for about a month following the January rains, according to agricultural officials. The situation is worse in Masvingo province, where many districts lie in natural region five, the country’s worst agro economic region.

“I don’t think we will get more than 20 percent of what we got last year,’’ said Elifas Mugari, the provincial agricultural extension specialist. “Most parts did not get enough rain during the first rains and in some parts there were no plantings at all,’’ he said, citing Chiredzi on the border with South Africa.

Masvingo has been one of the hardest hit provinces with more than half of the 25,000 reported livestock deaths and 90 percent of inadequate water supplies for agriculture, a statement released by the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s office last month shows. The crisis is beginning to impact children with the severely acute malnutrition rate forecast to increase in 2016 from 2.1 percent now versus 1.5 percent last year.

“The eroded productive capacity of vulnerable farming households and the increased food prices have resulted in higher rates of malnutrition especially in the most food insecure districts,’’ the UN said, urging targeted assistance such as school meals for children to ensure they remain in school in areas like Matabeleland North where some 6,000 children are said to be “skipping classes, citing hunger and the need to help out with house or farm work.’’

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which says it needs $21 million has so far raised just half a million dollars.

However recent rains which covered most of the country have materially helped livestock recover, Mugari said. That will help households hold onto their livestock and prevent fire-sales, he added. Sales at prices as low as $50 a head have been reported in southern parts of the country. Normally they would retail between $250 and $300 a head depending on the condition.

But in places like Chingwizi, near the sugar cane growing town of Triangle, drinking water remains scarce and some still walk as many as four kilometres twice a day to fetch water because of broken down boreholes.

“The distance we have to cover, sometimes with babies on our backs, to get to water is great,’’ Mollen Jongwe said as she walked with a group of women to a borehole owned by a nearby farmer. “I have had to leave my three-month-old baby at home. Look how dirty I am. I have a big water problem.’’

Apart from the water problems, increasing hunger is also beginning to impact the education system. Some districts are reporting declining school attendance and concentration levels in classes.

Chikadzi Primary School in Mwenezi has seen an average drop of 10 percent in daily attendances as families struggle to raise fees and other support required by the schools.

Agnes Mashila, a communal farmer near Neshuro Business Centre in Masvingo, hasn’t encouraged her daughter to return to school because she needs all hands to help feed the family of six who remain at the homestead. Like many farmers here, she has planted more sorghum than maize this year given the patchy the rains.

“The rains came late and a few plants that survived the dry spell revived. (But) we don’t know if they will make it,’’ Mashila said. The family, which is down to two cows, was only able to plough the fields this year after striking a barter deal with a local teacher to use his cattle in return for looking after them.

The hunger is now starting to be felt in urban areas as well, said Tavaruva who employs 15 people at his security company. He said the rural areas around Masvingo traditionally provided food for the town but this has been reversed this year, with people flocking to the town for food and support from relatives.

“People are leaving rural areas to come into town where there is massive unemployment and where we don’t have any industries now,’’ Tavaruva said. “While the situation isn’t desperate yet we are heading for trouble from August. People are surviving on their reserves now.’’