‘Land of lean’ Buhera pins hopes on irrigation, income-generating projects

YEAR-AFTER-YEAR, Buhera District in Manicaland Province is infamous for being a land on lean. Being in Region 5, Buhera at times receives rains twice or once a year and, when the rains come, they are very low and insignificant for crop production.

This has forced new thinking among villagers, who now wish to have income-generating projects start-up kits and irrigation.

Rain-fed agriculture has proved to be a big problem in the district.

Last year, the rains were insignificant that even the Pfumvudza/Intwasa crop was affected and could not give high yields.

Thus the community experiences food insecurity especially during the lean season.

This period, which is between planting and harvesting, normally stretches from October to March and coincides with the rainfall season.

It is during the lean season that most households in Ward 18, Buhera Central, rely on Government and developmental partners such as the World Food Programme, USAID and World Vision for food assistance.

The families receive rations of maize, cooking oil and beans.

Some of the farmers have since adopted the Government’s Climate Proofed Presidential Inputs Scheme popularly known as the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme and have registered an increase in production especially during the 2020/21 season.

Last year the rains were insignificant that even the Pfumvudza crop was affected and could not give high yields.

In an interview during a food handout programme in Buhera recently, the community said they were grateful to Government and development partners for the interventions, especially during the lean season through food assistance.

Members of Ward 18 said the assistance had a huge impact as most of the beneficiaries were able to feed their families and remain food and nutrition secure.

They, however, said the problem of food insecurity during the lean season could be reduced if the community had access to irrigation facilities and start-ups for income generating projects.

Mrs Tendai Mudzudzu from Materere Village said climate change had severely affected the area which sometimes received significant rains once.

“We, therefore, cannot rely on rain fed agriculture,” she said. “If we get start-ups we can embark on poultry projects, gardening and other income generating projects. If we have income generating projects even if we are weaned off from the food assistance programmes we will be able to sustain ourselves.

“We are getting inputs from Government through the Pfumvudza programme but our major challenge is low rainfall. If we do not receive rains even the Pfumvudza crop gets affected and that is why we are calling for irrigation equipment even drip irrigation.”

Ward 18 councillor Wisdom Jiri said a number of people in the area were food insecure because of the low rainfall.

“The situation was made worse by the fact that a number lost their livestock which succumbed to January Disease,” he said.

“People were left with no option for survival.

“We encourage the leadership to look into this issue. Our area has low rainfall. We hope they could invest in irrigation as our area does not receive enough rainfall.

“We hope our development partners will also invest in irrigation so we can produce crops throughout the year. The programmes should promote livelihoods and projects such as livestock production.

“We have adopted the Pfumvudza programme which started in 2019 here. That year we made planting stations, applied mulch and we had good yields. If the rains are poor the crops get stressed and die. If we continue having rains, the Pfumvudza programme will see us through.”

Mrs Jesca Jakwi of the same area said development partners were doing a great job in complimenting Government’s efforts in feeding people in drought prone areas.

“We were affected by food insecurity and our children were no longer going to school,” she said. “We cannot grow crops because most of the times the rains are insignificant. If we grow traditional grains at least we will have food but the crop is also affected by severe drought.

“If we can establish nutritional gardens and irrigation schemes we will be food secure. We need boreholes so we can irrigate our crops.”

WFP representative and country director Ms Francesca Elderman said they were working closely with Government to ensure food insecure people get assisted.

“The ZimVac committee undertakes a survey to determine approximately how many people would be food insecure during this period,” she said.

“This year 3,8 million in rural areas will be food insecure at the peak between January and March.

“Usually as WFP we work together with the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and we plan for the lean season’s response together. In a normal year when contributions are good, we provide about 30 percent of the overall needs.

“This year, unfortunately we are only able to do only 18 percent and Government is taking care of almost 82 percent of the total need. That is a reflection of so much reduced contribution that we have received this year.”

Ms Elderman said the expected bumper wheat harvest this year was good, especially for those communities who eat bread mostly in urban areas.

“Hopefully the bumper harvest will see a reduction of food prices. In rural areas communities depends on more on maize consumption,” she said.

“We do provide food distributions during the lean season and ruing the remainder of the year, we engage with communities to build resilience. So we build rural productive assets for example dams and water reservoirs that can help in their agricultural activities.

“We also engage in financial literacy where we engage in entrepreneurship training to make sure smallholder farmers can connect with markets.

“We also engage with communities around risk management so they are more familiar about climate change and how the weather in their community is impacting on their livelihoods and also that we use insurance for their agriculture crops.”

USAID representative Mr Ramses Gauthier said they were providing a grant to Zimbabwe to help communities facing food security challenges.

“We are providing US$36,7 million grant assistance for the lean season and for this community 65 percent of the population has been determined to be food insecure. We are also assisting people in other districts,” he said.

World Vision national director, Mr Assan Golowa said this year has been bad as there had been an increase in people requiring assistance due to poor rainfall.

“In a good year last year, over 2 million people needed food. This year, it is a bad year and 3,8 million require food,” he said.

“World vision is working with WFP with funding from USAID to support food distribution in five districts to about 800 000 people.”

Government has been spearheading projects to increase the area under irrigation and ensure national food security.

The 2023 budget has a provision of $30.4 billion towards sustaining ongoing dam construction projects; supporting the development of a master plan for all dams and implementing a clear programme to progressively utilise capacity of already existing water bodies for industrial, domestic and irrigation purposes among others.

To ensure the utilisation of idle water bodies, such as Tugwi Mukosi, Marovanyati, and Muchekeranwa dams, $55.3 billion has been set aside in the 2023 budget for the development of irrigation infrastructure, fisheries and water conveyancing systems, among other interventions.

In 2023, $5.3 billion will be channelled towards the drilling of boreholes in the rural communities, including schools.

The budget will also support the establishment of productive economic activities around water sources by rural communities through village gardens, a source of nutrition and commerce.

To enhance climate proofing of the vulnerable and ensuring food and nutrition security, Government is implementing the National Accelerated Irrigation Rehabilitation Programme, focusing on the rehabilitation and development, as well as maintenance of communal irrigation schemes.