Lupane women adopt climate smart agriculture
WOMEN farmers in Lupane’s Simunyu Village have committed to adopt climate smart agriculture techniques this planting season as a means to avert impacts of drought on household food security.
Simunyu Village is on the edge of the Gwayi River Valley, which falls under the country’s ecological region 5, with low, unpredictable rainfall annual patterns. Crop fields were in 2017 affected by floods. The farmers harvested almost nothing and the following season was met with late rains and extreme dry spells.
This season, more women farmers across Matabeleland North engaged in a series of trainings and awareness campaigns with Ntengwe for Community Development, in an attempt to find better ways to fight hunger in the drought ravished area.
Ntengwe for Community Development is working in partnership with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development in Binga, Hwange and Lupane districts to inform, train, capacitate and build climate change resilience among rural women and girls.
Sunday Farming went on a tour of Simunyu and Mandawe villages, during the International Day of Rural Women commemorations held last Thursday in the area, where it was established that farmers are now adopting resilient and ready to practice farming and self-help techniques that would bring about food security.
In an interview, Lupane District Development Co-ordinator Ms Ennerty Sithole applauded the private-public partnership between Government and organisations such as Ntengwe, saying women empowerment and climate change programmes were at the core of community development.
“When we empower women, we benefit the whole society. Agriculture is the backbone of the economy and if our farmers are committed to get smart with farming, as we are witnessing in Lupane and other areas, it means we are headed for progress. Government calls for mainstreaming of gender issues in climate change through climate resilience programmes that help capacitate them so they sustain themselves and their families,” said Ms Sithole.
Ntengwe for Community Development programmes manager Mr Innocent Isaac said women in Lupane were at the forefront of fighting hunger and fending for their families through agro-based income generating projects.
“Lupane’s remote villages are suffering in the face of droughts that hit the previous years. Upon realising that they have to adapt to other forms of farming and survival, they are geared for the coming planting season. Women in this area were resilient and continue to show that if well capacitated, they can bring about change. As Ntengwe for Community Development, we set out an undertaking to encourage women community-led development projects in support of economic, climate and social justice to end poverty. It has worked here in Lupane as women are giving testimonies of life-changing encounters.
“Our focus is on community women-led initiatives because rural women have so far, since working with Ntengwe, shown that they lead in transforming not only agriculture but economic sustenance at local level,” Mr Isaac said.
He added that his organisation was looking forward to promote women through self-help initiatives.
At Simunyu, villagers displayed farm produce, fruit syrup harvested from their conservation agriculture enterprises and handiwork such as ornaments and bead-work.
“Such projects play a critical role in unlocking women’s potentials as entrepreneurs, potential farmers and agents of their personal development. Especially so as communities start to accept the realities of climate change.
“What we are pleased about is the resilience we see in the woman and the girls. Poverty will be a thing of the past in Lupane if these women plan well, execute what they have learned from Ntengwe and its partners.”
A farmer at Simunyu, Mrs Helen Ncube said on engaging with Ntengwe for Community Development, she has mastered the art of farming and multi-tasking.
“I do a small vegetable business by my homestead and on the side I make handbags and bracelets. The earnings after selling my wares, usually go to fending for my family’s daily needs,” she said.
The on-going public-private partnerships in advocating for conservation agriculture is in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
It is the view of the AU that climate smart agriculture can combat the effects of climate change.
For the women of Lupane, this rainfall season means doing farming differently and hoping for a better yield.
“We are ready. If the heavens open and it rains more than last year, we will be happy. But even if rains less, we are armed to survive,” said Mrs Ncube.