Story by Farirai Mutumburanzou
The United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), and Southern African Development Community (SADC) assessment team is currently in Zimbabwe to evaluate the impact of the El Nino-induced drought and to assess the measures taken by Zimbabwe to mitigate its effects.
Speaking at the National Disaster Management Centre in Harare yesterday, Mr Aboubakar Diane, the Senior Policy Officer for Disaster Risk Reduction from the African Union said that Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a persistent drought.
He also highlighted that the positive development is the proactive leadership taken by the government of Zimbabwe to address and mitigate the effects of the drought.
“Zimbabwe is facing ongoing drought but the good news is the government of Zimbabwe has taken leadership to mitigate the effects of the drought.
“We are here for an assessment and one of the objectives of this engagement is to communicate with the regional countries so that we prevent the impact of the disaster in our communities in Africa,” he said.
Mr Anderson Banda the Director for SADC Humanitarian and Emergence Operations Centre said combined efforts will yield results for the countries affected.
“SADC has launched an appeal to ensure that we have a combined response because this does not only affect food security, but it has also affected the energy sector (hydroelectricity) even the education sector,” he said.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture,Fisheries,Water and Rural Development represented by Economist Adrian Nguchini has highlighted that they have since come up with mitigatory strategies which include wheat-based food security.
“We have since come up with mitigatory strategies and one of them is already underway, which is wheat-based food security.
“We have planted more than 120 000 hectares of wheat, and we expect to harvest more than 600 000 metric tonnes of wheat,” he said.
He added that people in Zimbabwe are reluctant and resistant in embracing small grains which are adjacent to their agro ecological regions.
“What we still struggle with is behavioral change, we are struggling with household induced drought, the taste of maize is high when it comes to consumption in Zimbabwe. The Ministry of Agriculture advises farmers to grow small grains that suit their agro ecological region, but they still prefer maize,” he said.
El Nino affected the production of crops by 77% and only Goromonzi and Makoni are declared food secure until the next harvest out of all the districts in Zimbabwe.
The assessment team from United Nations, AU and SADC will proceed to Masvingo Province where they will see various projects being implemented there under the Village Business Unit initiative championed by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture Fisheries and Rural Development to self-sustain them in this drought season.
Story by Farirai Mutumburanzou
