The government is putting in place measures to mitigate drought following preliminary weather
forecast that the country is expecting normal to below normal rainfall during the 2023/24 planting
season.
Last week, the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry predicted that the
country is likely to receive normal to below normal rainfall with parts of the Midlands and
Matabeleland provinces getting below normal rains for the beginning of the 2023/24 planting
season.
According to the Ministry, the bulk of Matabeleland North, parts of the Midlands covering Gokwe
North and South districts, parts of Matabeleland South province covering Bulilima district will
receive below normal to normal rainfall for the sub-season October-November-December.
In an update, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development permanent secretary Dr John
Basera urged stakeholders to go through the recently released 2023/24 seasonal outlook report
which is now in the public domain.
“As we reflect long and hard on this, we are expected to come up with appropriate early actions,
early responses through customised agriculture extension messaging and implementing robust
mitigatory measures,” said Dr Basera.
He said the reflections should culminate in the key touch points dubbed Adaptation, Mitigation,
Action (AMA).
Dr Basera urged stakeholders to speedily deploy strategies such as accelerated irrigation
rehabilitation, religious adoption of Pfumvudza/Intwasa tenets, promoting on-farm feed
formulations with climate smart fodder options and improving season preparedness through early
inputs distribution informed by agro-ecological potential matching, with a bias towards growing of
traditional/ small grains is required.
He also called for a healthy animal or crop that he said stands a ‘bad season’ better, hence adoption
of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) as well as increasing vigilance in protecting veld, as the country
gears for the 2023/24 season. The period October to March is the main rainfall season over most
parts of the country.
New Ziana