Zimbabwe farmers turn to smart solutions to fight climate change

By Farai Matiashe

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Over the past decade, many smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe have suffered poor harvests due to drought, exacerbating an already dire situation for millions of people in need of food assistance.

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The community decided to join Sizimele-Action for Resilience Building in Zimbabwe, a three-year consortium project aimed at boosting diversified agricultural production for more than 30,000 at-risk households in the districts of Matobo, Insiza and Lupane with assistance from NGOs and international partners, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

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At the Tshongokwe Irrigation Scheme, whose 24 hectares of land are shared among 63 farmers, the programme drilled two solar-powered boreholes that store water in two 10,000-litre tanks. Flowing from the tanks, the water goes through underground pipes onto the drip lines to irrigate the farmers' crops.

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Also, the programme installed a weather station that provides early warning and in-weather season forecasts and also records surface and underground temperatures, as well as wind speed.

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