IN the midst of Climate change induced effects such as droughts and other natural disasters, small scale farmers in Zimbabwe’s communal lands are slowly replacing maize with small grains as they seek to adapt to the ever changing environment, a top researcher has said.
By Patricia Mashiri
A case study of rural Mbire which was done to evaluate the nutritional and psychological health impacts showed that there was a shift from maize farming in areas that receive below normal rainfall to drought tolerant crops such as sorghum, millet and Rapokko.
Speaking to HealthTimes, Dr Lesley Macheka, Co-Investigator and the Director of Innovation and Industrialization at Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology said the project’s aim was to look at the impact of climate change adaptation strategies on nutrition and health outcomes.
We did the research in Mbire the reason being it is mainly affected by climate change . There have been increased droughts over the past decade and communities there in order to mitigate the impact of climate change the have adopted several strategies.
“We surveyed 621 households in Mbire mainly looking at adaptation strategies adopted by communities against cropping strategies they were planning a decade ago, which new varieties they have adopted and which new means have they engaged internship of their livelihoods including harvesting wild fruits, edible insects and indigenous vegetables,” Dr Macheka said.
He added that the aim of the project was to assess impact of doted climate change strategies on nutritional outcomes including child nutrition as well as observe if these adopted strategies had impact on psychosocial health.
Climate change has of late been negatively affecting farming communities especially those in peripheral areas. Farming seasons have changed and some areas are not yet well versed with the new seasons. The disruption in whether patterns have resulted in some areas experiencing droughts for over a decade now and the areas have been slowing shifting from depending on farming as their source of food and income.
Meanwhile, Dr Admire Nyamwanza, Principal Investigator, Institute of Natural Resources, South Africa highlighted that their research was mainly focused on the response actions to climate change not impacts of climate change only.
“The presence of explicitly case study exploration of climate change and health issues in Africa, yet health aspects are directly linked to livelihood resilience, sustained households and community adaptation capacity as well as the physical, social and economic wellbeing of the society,” Dr Nyamwanza said.
The key findings of the project showed that the communities are slowly moving away from growing maize into the growing of small grains including sorghum and finger millet among others. The communities have also increased reliance on wild forest as a source of food and income where they sometimes harvest and eat and sometimes harvest and sell for income.
Positive impact from these adaptation is cultivation of small grains and they are eating wide various crops, fruits as compared to before where they only relied on maize. There is need to educate communities on nutrition.
