Model shift

Farmers in Zimbabwe are shifting from rain-fed to irrigation-based agriculture to beat erratic rains in a rapidly changing climate

- CYRIL ZENDA HARARE

AFTER DEFICIT rainfall led to a poor maize harvest in the summer cropping season November-March, Tinashe of Kubara has another chance. The 31-year-old farmer from Stoneridge area on the outskirts of Zimbabwe's capital city Harare set up a borehole-based irrigation facility on his farm towards the end of March by spending US $2,500 and planted maize again. "With rain-fed farming, it would not have been possible to plant again after a crop failure," says Kubara. He has also set aside two-thirds of his 1.2 hectare (ha) for growing vegetables. Kubara is one of the tens of thousands of Zimbabwean farmers who are embracing irrigation for the first time.

Irrigation has remained largely alien to Zimbabwe's 1.5 million smallholder farmers (farms under 10 ha), who make up to 70 per cent of the country's farmers and produce more than 50 per cent of the country's food, says an agronomist in the country, requesting anonymity. In the 1960s, when the government introduced irrigation schemes, few farmers opted for them since rains were dependable, he adds. Till 1999, the country was a net exporter of grains.

Erratic rains have severely affected Zimbabwe's traditionally rain-fed farming system with disastrous results for the landlocked nation's agro-based economy, which now struggles to produce even half of the country's food requirements.