Women subsistence farmers frustrated by misleading weather predictions
By Thabisile Moyo
Lungile Ncube (56) who lives in Emganwini suburb in Bulawayo metropolitan province says she has survived on subsistence farming for the past 24 years and that of late, misleading weather predictions had caused her to lose a lot of money buying inputs, and expended labour on her piece of land only for the crops to be wiped out by insufficient rains and heat waves.
Lungile says she and other fellow subsistence farmers have lost faith in weather predictions and now use their own indigenous knowledge to plan farming operations. She adds that it is even impossible to predict weather conditions within a period of one. She says forecasters may predict during the day that there is a possibility of rains at the end of the day but it may turn out to be very hot and cloudless. She says if forecasts can be wrong for one day, then it is totally impossible to predict for the month or season.
“The biggest challenge is that we tend to believe experts and scientists to provide correct weather predictions. It is high time that we as farmers study our own environment and make our own predictions. I have learned a lot about the climate crisis and I understand the challenges in predicting weather but I think that our experts should do better in weather predictions. We were told that the 2024–25 farming season will be characterized by normal to above normal rains. But it does not look that way anymore,” says Lungile.
Lungile says this year she acted on the weather predictions and had already planted maize crop at her one acre plot at the end of October when her area received some rains. She says the current heat wave, which was unpredicted, has already scotched her crops and is now a total write-off.
“I planted early when the rains came because we had been told that the country will receive normal rains. The heat wave has wiped off my crops and I will have no options but to re-plant when the rains come again. It is heartbreaking but I have no other choice,” says Lungile.
Lungile feels that there is need to invest more in crops that are drought resistant and that subsistence farmers should permanently stick to such crops.
“Going forward I am abandoning crops such as maize, sweet potatoes and beans. These crops have failed season after season. I am now focusing on small grain crops such as sorghum and pearl millet. I wish we could have more drought tolerant crops so that I get something from my operations. Climate change is now a reality and all the predictions of good rains always mislead farmers,” says Lungile.
Rejoice Ngirazi, (61) who also lives in Emganwini says subsistence farming is increasingly becoming unproductive and many households in her community are struggling.
“I used to produce all my maize meal requirements from my piece of land. It was very productive and I used to harvest 20 to 25 buckets of maize per season. That amount of maize was enough to feed my family for the whole year. The climate crisis has destroyed my main source of livelihood. For the past four years the harvest has been insignificant. At times it is a complete write-off, even when it is predicted that the rains would be sufficient” says Rejoice.
Rejoice says she wishes there would be a clearer way of predicting weather conditions. She says many subsistence farmers like her are losing a lot of money through hiring tractors and buying inputs.
