By EUNICE MBEWE
EFFECTS of climate change such as droughts and heavy rainfall threatens the livelihoods of many people in Zambia especially smallholder farmers that contribute about 90 percent of food produced in the Agriculture sector.
In Zambia Agriculture is mostly rainfall dependent there is virtually no irrigation in place for most farmers so they are very exposed to risks like droughts or dry spells. As a result, Zambia is not exceptional to effects of climate change. The change in the weather patterns associated with climate change effects has negatively affected crop production.
Efforts to mitigate these effects through the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), have heightened through the crop diversification programme where they are encouraging the small holder farmers to diversify with their crop production in order to increase their yields. The Ministry of Agriculture through its extension services is encouraging farmers to form cooperatives and come up interventions aimed at scaling up agriculture production.
In Central Province the Department of Agriculture has continued making positive strides towards crop diversification where they have trained farmers on the importance of growing legumes to mitigate against climate change affects.
Central Province Agricultural Planner Patrick Longwani said that his province is one of the leading producers of key crops produced in Zambia. The crops produced in central province include maize, soya beans, cowpeas, sunflower, cotton and also horticultural crops just to mention a few.
Mr Longwani has observed that during the dry spells or open up farmers tends to start planting at the same time trying to catch up with floods the production levels tends to be low and when the planting season farmers the window period.
He further highlighted that small scale farmers for depend on rain fed agriculture so as a result they are affected by dry spells and droughts resulting in low production and productivity.
And Agricultural Researcher Petan Hamazakaza from Zambia Agriculture Research Institution (ZARI) center of excellency for legumes explained that the center has about 40 hectares of land where they are expediting research varieties development for crop breeding that includes soya beans, cowpeas and beans which are the major crops grown in Kabwe.
With these crop varieties Early maturing seeds farmers are able to grow at least two crop varieties in a season to supplement their incomes and enhance their food security.
Tatwaitemwa cooperative is a new cooperative that was formed in November 2021 with more than 20 members comprising of women, men and youth. The name Tatwaitemwa comes from the Bemba language which means “we are not selfish.”
The cooperative grows maize, soya beans, okra, tomatoes and cabbages. The cooperative is based in Natuseko camp in Kabwe.
Nakuseko Camp extensional officer Mike Chiyanika is impressed with Tatwaitemwa cooperative because the cooperative does not abandon their gardens during the rainy season when most farmers concentrate on their maize fields but the cooperative embraces all the crops that they are growing.
“The importance of crop diversification is that when there is a failure in one crop like maize then at least you can still benefit from the horticultural crops.” he further explained.
He also highlighted that Kabwe district is prone to droughts so farmers need not just to depend on maize production alone but embrace legumes and vegetables which will help them to mitigate climate change effects.
The cooperative has seen the benefits of crop diversification as they can grow vegetables throughout the year to feed their families and sell to the local markets unlike just relaying on maize production which is seasonal.
These practices have been scaled up to follower farmers and are resulting into high yields and improved nutrition due to crop diversification. Farmers in Kalomo have also begun growing legumes such as cowpeas, groundnuts and soybeans at a large scale. Apart from growing these crops in rotational to improve soil fertility, legumes are very nutritious and very profitable.
The Chairperson of the cooperative Mr Patrick Chanda said that growing different types of vegetables all year round will increase income generation among households. Mr Chanda explained that crop diversification will not only help them to generate more income but will help in adapting with the effects of climate change among the smallholder farmers. He further explained that his cooperative has embraced other crops in order to alleviate poverty among the farming community because they have variety of crops not only to sale to the nearby markets but also to feed his community.
“In the past we used to have challenges of taking our children to school but now we are managing because of the income that we are generating from the cooperative when we sell the vegetables,” he explained.
“We also empower widows and orphans who buys crops from us and resell at the local markets in town,” he further explained.
For Zambia to be food secure, both at household and national level, Crop diversification is key as this will enhance production and productivity thereby improving income among the smallholder farmers.
