ZFU pushes for climate smart agric

THE Zimbabwe Farmers Union is pushing for the adoption of climate smart agriculture (CSA) in Manicaland to mitigate climate change effects on agricultural processes.

ZFU’s renewed efforts come in the wake of the successful rolling out of a pilot conservation agriculture project in the province.

In an interview with The Herald, ZFU Manicaland provincial manager Mr Daniel Mungazi said a number of farmers and communities benefited from the previous project and were willing to take on board the new initiative.

“The previous project on scaling up of farmer-led conservation agriculture saw 50 schools and communities, which translates to about 1 500 school-going learners and 2 000 farmers benefiting in Makoni, Mutasa and Mutare districts of Manicaland.

“The project saw participating communities establishing school based Young Farmers Clubs, community farming groups, using crop protection chemicals, increasing on yielding levels and adopting conservation agriculture principles as groups or individuals,” said Mr Mungazi.

The farmers’ organisation is implementing a CSA advocacy programme named “Advocating for the adoption of CSA on a wide scale in Zimbabwe,” after identifying climate change as one of the major challenges impacting on farmers’ development in Zimbabwe.

The programme seeks to transform agricultural systems to ensure food security in the face of climate change.

“ZFU is currently implementing a project code named ‘Advocating for the adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture’ on a wide scale in Zimbabwe. The project has four main pillars — climate resilience, economic resilience, technology and advocacy.

“Manicaland managed to hold two meetings at district and provincial level, where stakeholders and farmers were given the platform to highlight the challenges that might hamper the adoption of the initiative,” said Mr Mungazi.

Of the two plenary sessions held by ZFU Manicaland, farmers in the province highlighted the need for training in animal husbandry, as there had been a notable poor choice of cattle breeds and national stock was decreasing due to deaths from diseases and overpopulation resulting from human settlements encroaching grazing areas.

They also highlighted the need to train farmers on land use planning and placed strong emphasis on doing soil analyses.