Ndlovu admires his maize crop. Photo: Karyn Beattie/Tearfund
26 May 2009
`This is probably the best harvest I have ever had.’
The words of Ndlovu, a farmer based two and a half hours drive north of Bulawayo, offer a rare but welcome measure of hope in the sorry story of Zimbabwe.
His recent bumper crop will, he estimates, be enough to feed his household of ten people until next year’s harvest.
Plentiful rain and agricultural training from Tearfund and the local church are what Ndlovu attributes the turnaround to.
Through Tearfund partners based in Zimbabwe, he and others like him have been given some much-needed help to boost their growing capacity for crops such as maize, ground nuts and sorghum.
He’s been taught conservation farming techniques which as the name implies concentrate on making the most of limited resources.
Instead of ploughing an entire field for planting, farmers are encouraged to plant seeds in small holes so as to ensure as much moisture as possible is retained in the ground.
Impressed
Nyamayaba's crops will give her food into next year. Photo: Karyn Beattie/Tearfund
They are also advised to use the same holes each year so new crops benefit from the residual fertiliser left in the soil. Access to fertiliser in Zimbabwe has been extremely limited due to the ailing economy and this has contributed to food shortages and widespread hunger.
`I tried to follow all the advice I was given and look at my crops,’ says Ndlovu, who is so impressed with what he’s learnt because the yields he’s seen are much higher than with his conventional farming methods.
Not surprisingly, next year he’s planning to increase the acreage for conservation farming.
Seventy five-year-old Nyamayaba lives north of Harare and is looking to the future positively thanks to conservation farming: `I think we’ll have enough to last until next year and even some extra to sell for school fees.’
Thembi is another farmer whose crops testify to the effectiveness of conservation farming techniques, with higher yields as a result.
She had to begin production from scratch having returned to her home after fleeing violence to find she no longer had seeds to restart crop planting.
Encouraging signs
A Tearfund partner gave her an open pollinated variety of seeds which means she is not only able to plant now but they’ll also last for planting next year as well.
Conservation farming methods also have the benefit of being accessible and manageable for vulnerable groups, such as elderly people or orphan-headed households.
Tearfund’s Karyn Beattie, who has recently returned from Zimbabwe, says there are encouraging signs that the hardships facing ordinary people are easing compared to when she visited last November.
`There’s been lots of good rain in most parts of the country, so people have had crops and are more optimistic generally,’ says Karyn.
The legalisation by the new Zimbabwe unity government of the use of foreign currencies has resulted in some prices coming down and more food being available in the shops.
Conservation farming techniques have produced bumper crops. Photo: Kieran Dodds/Tearfund