Govts must adopt smart climate agriculture NEIGHBOURING Zambia has adopted climate smart agriculture (CSA) in its quest to contribute to the country and the continent’s quest to be food secure through the use of drought resistant “tree” seed amid unprecedented climatic change effects and the COVID-19.
The southern African state has in recent years been the regional food basket after many suffered poor yields heightened by drought, floods and other natural calamities.
Despite the country recording to a 25% deficit last season, climate smart agriculture would reverse all loses and bolster food output.
Arguably, CSA, an integrated approach to managing landscapes — cropland, livestock, forests and fisheries — operates on four dimensions-food security: availability, access, stability, and utilisation. It seeks to address the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change.
The recent shortcomings in agriculture output on maize, soya beans and other cash crops spurred by climatic change has helped farmers look beyond rain-fed agricultural practices and adopting the new concept would help sustain crop and food production.
Despite subsidising farmers through providing fertiliser and seed to farmers, it has not helped increase food production, hence the need to adopt smarter ways of farming.
We need to change the scope of farmer input support programmes to general agriculture support programmes.
Besides using both organic and inorganic methods to produce variety of food, adopting CSA is a more sustainable way as some tree types or crops are resistant and are able to keep moisture, with the seed being able to be kept for a long time before being planted in future.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Africa should innovate to become food self-sufficient. Zambia is desirous and well-placed to take the first step and weather the global food crisis worsened by the war in Ukraine through a “home grown” food production agenda to defray costs and fight poverty.
The increasing devastating effect of food insecurity in all regions of the African continent are worrisome, but we should be ready to face the challenge in ensuring the continent’s food security. – Afrikan Farmer
Aspiring women leaders should be protected from online violence THE Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (Walpe) with support from Oxfam conducted an online television programme with four aspiring women leaders under the topic Implications of online violence on aspiring women leaders’ full participation in electoral processes.
The aspiring women leaders narrated how online violence has diminished their confidence to take part in electoral processes as their images are been tarnished.
One of the participants, Febie Shoko, stated how women have lost respect in their communities due to the damaging nature of online harassment and bullying.
“People, including children, no longer respect aspiring women leaders, who have been the targets of online bullying because of the content that they see. Often, women who aspire to become public officials are labelled prostitutes or people with no morals because of the nature of our aspirations. We are accused of many horrible deeds in society despite us being respectable and law abiding citizens in our communities. This in turn makes women shun aspiring to become leaders because of the negative connotations,” Shoko said.
The women emphasised the need for:
lThe police to stop asking for bribes in order to expedite arrests and subsequent prosecution of perpetrators of online violence.
lPolice reports of online harassment and bullying to be taken seriously before they culminate into physical assaults on aspiring women leaders.
lAspiring women leaders to be protected from online attacks regardless of whether they are affiliated to a political party or not.
In the same vein, it was more interesting to see more women continuing to register to vote.
The week ending July 29, 2022 saw 11 first time female voters being successfully assisted to register to vote in Chitungwiza and Hopley by Walpe under the 2,2 Million Votes for Women from Women campaign.
The 11, who were in the youth bracket, that is 18-35 years old age range, were excited about being able to participate in future elections.
Of the registered voters during the said period, 10 were young women while one was a young man who pledged to become a gender champion in his community.
Since mobile voter registration started, Walpe has managed to assist 310 women and 42 men to register to vote in various parts of the country.
The academy has also been conscientising women on the benefits of registering to vote as well as voting for fellow women in upcoming elections. – Walpe
Poor households expected to cope by employing consumption coping strategies AN increasing proportion of households in deficit-producing areas are experiencing crisis outcomes as the 2022/23 lean season sets in earlier than normal due to below-average 2021/22 harvests and macroeconomic instability.
Meanwhile, near-average 2021/22 harvests and above-average 2020/21 carryover stocks in some surplus-producing areas will continue to drive minimal outcomes.
Stressed outcomes will prevail through January 2023 in those surplus-producing areas negatively impacted by the poor progression of the 2021/22 rainfall season and in urban areas due to high prices and poor access to basic commodities.
Staple grain availability at both household and market levels is lower than usual, with reliance on maize meal purchases higher than normal for this time of the year.
Seasonal grain deliveries to, and stocks at the Grain Marketing Board are also low, with private sector imports reportedly now beginning to arrive.
Government has indicated it will not import grain this marketing season, and will rely on domestic reserves for commercial and humanitarian needs.
The macroeconomic situation remains volatile despite some recent stabilisation in parallel market foreign currency exchange rates.
Official (auction and interbank) exchange rates continue to increase, recording 10% and 6% increases between July and August, respectively.
Though fuel prices have reduced somewhat, prices of most goods and services continue to increase in both United States dollar and Zimbabwe dollar terms driven by both international and domestic factors.
As a result, the cost of living continues to increase and additional households are falling below the poverty lines.
Most typical livelihoods are constrained and expected to remain so throughout the outlook period.
Poor households are expected to cope by employing consumption coping strategies and by either intensifying existing livelihood strategies or extending to other measures or activities such as petty trading, informal mining, and barter.
One of the key activities, casual labour, is expected to be below normal until at least the beginning of the next agricultural season.
Though forecasted above-average rainfall will likely have positive effects on some livelihood activities such as casual labour, cropping, and livestock conditions, there remains a risk of negative impacts as well from excess moisture and flooding. – FewsNet
