Feature: Zimbabwean farms affect by worst drought in decades

Tinashe Muroro has all the farming implements he needs for his small farm in Zimbabwe's Mashonaland Central province this current planting season.

Prior to the onset of the current agricultural season, he bought all the necessary seed and fertilizers, hoping that the heavens would open and enable him to make modest harvests from his crops, particularly the staple food maize.

However, the drought induced by the El Nino factor has left him counting his losses as he has been forced to open up the gates to his fields to his cattle and goats so that they can help themselves to the wilting crops which are now beyond salvage.

"People planted, but they have had to let their cattle graze in the fields because the crops can no longer be saved because of the poor rains and extremely high temperatures which sometimes go beyond 30 degrees Celsius," Muroro said.

Zimbabwe's rain season generally begins in November and ends in March, with a prolonged dry spell in January.

The country, which is among those in the region to be hit hard by El Nino, is currently in the dry spell period which weather experts have predicted will last longer than usual. State media says the drought could be the worst in the past 60 years.

In Masvingo province, the situation is no better than in Muroro's area.

Herbert Mutugwi, a journalist based in the province, said many farmers had not even bothered to plant after noticing that the weather was not favorable.

"Most of Masvingo never got round to planting anything except in pockets of Gutu district where some have fields bordering wetlands.

"In Chirumhanzu district, Midlands province, the few that planted will have no crops to talk about by the end of this week," he said.

He added that livestock was also in danger as the pastures that had sprouted with the little rains that have fallen so far are drying up.

"Many cattle are also dying in mud pools after getting stuck as they try to drink water," he added.

In Marondera district, Mashonaland East province, the crops are also wilting with little hope of recovery.

Those who had ventured into tobacco will also do badly as they planted the crop late as they waited for moisture content in the soil to improve.

Farmer Mark Chiriseri described the farming season as "a disaster", saying that many people had also failed to plant.

"Tobacco is stressed. Those who do not irrigate are in a worse situation as they planted as late as the second week of December as opposed to the practice of having finished by the third week of November," he said.

The government has since admitted that the 2015/16 agricultural season is going to be extremely bad because of the drought.

Zimbabwe's economy is heavily dependent on agriculture which generates 30 percent of export earnings and contributes 19 percent to GDP.

About 70 percent of the population still survives on farming, whether directly or indirectly.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanization and Irrigation Development Davis Marapira said this week that all crops had been severely affected this season.

"We cannot expect much from maize because even if the rains come, the crop will not improve in most areas," he said.

"This year we are 95 percent El Nino and this is not good for agriculture," he told The Herald Newspaper.

Farmer organizations have also painted a gloomy picture of the situation, with the Zimbabwe National Farmers' Union saying that even those on irrigated land were finding the going tough because of evaporation due to the high temperatures.

Zimbabwe Farmers' Union agriculture economist Prince Kuipa urged the government to invest in modern irrigation equipment which used less water.

He also urged farmers to adopt practices which conserved water, including minimum tillage, pot holing and mulching.

The government last year appealed to development partners and other stakeholders for at least 300 million U.S. dollars to procure food supplements following the poor 2014/15 agricultural season.

It said this week that it had mobilized 260 million dollars to import between 500,000 and 700,000 tons of maize as part of efforts to avert hunger and to boost the country's strategic grain reserve.

More grain will be required in 2016 as there is virtually no agricultural activity throughout the country and farmers are being urged to destock their livestock or risk losing it.

The country needs 1.4 million tons of maize a year for consumption.

Its projected produce of 742,000 tons during the last season went down 49 percent because of drought and, in some cases, heavy rains which damaged crops and let it to write off about 300,000 hectares out of an estimated 2 million hectares of planted land.

The hectarage be written off in the current season is going to be smaller though, not because the farmers will have done a good job, but because most did not plant.

Millers have also been given permits to keep on importing grain for their businesses.

Farmers who still have food in their granaries have stopped selling while others are quickly disposing of their beasts at low prices to avoid complete losses. Endit