LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Prolonged arid weather conditions in the past few weeks have heightened chances of drought amid fears economic growth projections will be off-track, Business Times can report.
The dry spell has jolted the government to allow those with free funds to import maize as indications point to a potential disastrous summer cropping season.
There are growing fears among farmers that they will lose more than 40% of the crops planted in the event the dry spell continues this week.
The crops are now wilting at maturity stage while the late planted are nearing tasseling stage and have gone for two weeks without significant rains.
Farmers told Business Times that the situation was so dire to the extent that even short term varieties and small grains were also battling.
“…With this two-week dry spell, the situation is very dire and only prayers could change our situation. If rains fail to drop this week, we will lose more than 40% of our crop,” the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president, Shadreck Makombe said.
The Zimbabwe Farmers Union secretary general Paul Zakariya also raised fears of crop failure urging the need to invest in irrigation and reduce reliance on rain-fed agriculture.
“The country is now experiencing serious effects of climate change where today you have dry conditions, next heavy downpours and next dry spell . With these unpredictability there is a need to invest in irrigation more than ever,” Zakariya said.
“It’s even difficult to talk about the output with such conditions in our midst.”
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube had projected the economy to grow by 5.5% this year, underpinned by higher output in agriculture, mining and manufacturing.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, John Basera said the situation was extremely bad.
“…Given extreme weather patterns, even short season varieties had no time to mature,” Basera said.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya told Business Times that the imports will augment the strategic grain reserves and this year’s output.
“As we speak most farmers are praying day and night for the rain so that they can get something from the fields. But while we hope for the best, we have allowed those with free funds to start importing grain,” Mangudya said.
Zimbabwe has experienced droughts every 10 years since 1982.
The cumulative occurrence of these droughts have culminated in the stagnation of livelihoods , which have enormously been agro-based, especially in rural areas.
This year, given the drought cycle, the warning signs are already dire, experts told Business Times this week.
The change in climate conditions has implied that the adverse effects will increase in both intensity and frequency.
The unprecedented situation across Zimbabwe, which is located in the subtropics and very vulnerable to climate shocks, has left experts fearing for the worst.
More than 70% of Zimbabwe’s population resides in rural areas where they are dependent on agriculture for livelihood.
The looming drought exposes people to food insecurity and it is one of the major reasons that will hinder Zimbabwe’s projected growth.
The underlying assumptions for the projected growth were anchored on normal to above normal rainfall patterns, according to Ncube.
Ncube projected the agriculture sector to grow by a modest 5.1% this year, attributable to expected favourable rainfall season and implementation of government support programmes.
