Mhondoro women welcome climate adaptation initiatives
By Duduzile Ruzive
Esther Sengweni, a smallholder farmer in Mhondoro district in Mashonaland West province in Zimbabwe says the 2023–2024 rainfall season in Zimbabwe is projected to be charactrised by poor rains and she foresees the escalation of the challenges for women and girls in Zimbabwe who mostly shoulder the burden of preparing meals for their families. In anticipation of the poor rains, Esther says she and other women in her village are embarking on projects that seek to improve food production under normal to below-normal rainfall patterns.
Esther, the leader of the 12-member group says their project seeks to transform farming system in the area to ensure food security in the face of anticipated low rains.
“Under these initiatives, we are shifting from growing the staple maize crop. We are now growing small grain crops that are adapted to low rainfall patterns. We focus on crops such as sorghum, pearl millet, soybeans, sunflowers, groundnuts, vegetables, and pigeon peas,” says Esther.
Esther says the group has adopted a plan called Adaptation, Mitigation, and Action (AMA) to enhance resilience in the face of these uncertain weather changes. She adds that this strategy focuses on both adaptation and mitigation measures to minimize the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity.
According to Esther, the group’s work is anchored on wider and intensive training for members to understand the processes involved in this new farming system. Esther says traditional knowledge on growing small grains has been lost as villagers were concentrating on commercial crops. She says for farmers to successfully to appreciate small grains, they need training in growing and preparing food from small grains.
“For now we have received training on innovative grain storage techniques. These initiatives aim to enhance agricultural productivity and reduce post-harvest losses, which often plague crops like wheat, maize, legumes, and sweet potatoes. There are also plans to open a grain milling plant for processing and value-adding the produce,” says Esther.
Esther encourages woman and youths to get involved in Adaptation, Mitigation, and Action programmes as they are very beneficial and are a way of alleviating hunger and poverty. She says her group’s activities have also made them to reconnect with their spirit mediums as they are back to old way of asking for rains from their ancestors.
“Climate change poses a significant threat to agriculture, affecting crop yield and causing shifts in agricultural zones. As smallholder farmers, we need to apply farming systems that respond to these changes so that we produce adequate food for our families,” says Esther.
