Walkathon enters Day Two
The Friends of the Environment’s 12th Edition of the 500 million Walkathon today enters second day with walkers expected to experience the smoothest walk in their decade of environmental campaigns.
The excursion is expected to cover a distance of 35km stretching from Beatrice to Featherstone. In terms of the terrain, the area to be covered is one of the flattest land, characterised with swathes of grasslands typical of tropical savanna forest. The massive wide plains with sparse vegetation found in the area are generally veleis with occasional thickets of forests and often keep water all year round. This area forms the catchment area for a number of rivers in the country which include Pimbi; Munyati and Sebakwe rivers flow to the West. Hardly are the walkers going to cover more than 5 kilometres without crossing a tributary to these perennial rivers. The presence of these water bodies will bring some cooling effect to the walkers.
On the walking tarmac, the whole stretch to be covered falls under the area that has been recently completed under the road rehabilitation programme, a development which will make the walking much smoother.
In general, Chikomba district in which Chivhu falls under has a very comfortable weather throughout the year with a warm and mostly cloudy wet season and comfortable and clear dry season. Over the course of the year, the temperature is always average. Based on the tourism score, the best times of year to visit Chivhu for “warm-weather” activities are from early April to early May and from mid-August to late October. The warm season lasts for 2.7 months, from September to December. The hottest month of the year in Chivhu is November. The cool season lasts for 2 months, from May to August, the coldest month of the year in Chivhu is July. Chivhu falls within natural region 11. This region is located in the middle of the north of the country. The rainfall ranges from 750 to 1 000 mm/year. It is fairly reliable, falling from November to March/April. Because of the reliable rainfall and generally good soils, Natura region II is suitable for intensive cropping and livestock production. It accounts for 75-80 percent of the area planted to crops in Zimbabwe. The cropping systems are based on flue-cured tobacco, maize, cotton, wheat, soybeans, sorghum, groundnuts, seed maize and burley tobacco grown under dryland production as well as with supplementary irrigation in the wet months. Irrigated crops include wheat and barley grown in the colder and drier months (May-September). NR II is suitable for intensive livestock production based on pastures and pen-fattening utilizing crop residues and grain. The main livestock production systems include beef, dairy, pig and poultry. Prior to 2000, the region was dominated by the large-scale farming subsector characterized by highly mechanized farms of 1 000-2 000 ha under freehold title and owner-operated. Following the agrarian and land reform programmes initiated in 1999/2000, a large proportion of the farms were subdivided into smaller units and allocated to new farmers under the A1 and A2 small-scale farming system.
The reforestation efforts have seen companies such as Sustainable Afforestation Association (SAA) establishing a number of gum plantations in the area. FOTE has contributed through producing and supplying the seedlings for the plantations.