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Zimbabwe, once an agricultural exporter, now faces severe food insecurity due to persistent climate change impacts
Rising temperatures, frequent droughts and unpredictable rains have devastated rainfed farming, forcing food imports
Government adopts strategies like irrigation, water harvesting and conservation farming to build climate resilience
Climate change intensifies health risks, water shortages, and ecological threats, affecting livelihoods, wildlife and children
Until the late 1990s, Zimbabwe would have to deal with the logistical nightmares involved in handling its bounteous maize, cotton and tobacco produce. Today, it struggles to ensure that there is just enough grain to feed the 16 million citizens of this southern African country.
Climate change has gradually wiped off the surplus from the country’s rainfed agriculture. Realising that the good old times are gone for good, the African country is now racing to implement an array of climate adaptation strategies.
Zimbabwe is particularly vulnerable to climate change because of its geographic location, heavy reliance on rainfed agriculture and susceptibility to extreme weather events, according to the World Bank. As a result, the country's food security, water resources and overall economic stability are threatened.
Ranked among the top 20 countries most affected by extreme weather between 2000 and 2019 by the Global Climate Risk Index, Zimbabwe is experiencing an increasingly warming trend, with more frequent and intense heatwaves, and longer, more severe droughts. The country’s mean annual temperature rose by about 0.03°C per year from 1970 to 2016 and is expected to rise by 1- 1.5°C by 2040, potentially exceeding 3°C by 2050, a United Nations Environment Programme report showed.
With 80 per cent of the country’s agriculture reliant on rain, increasingly frequent and longer droughts, shorter rainy seasons and hotter temperatures, cyclones and floods have turned this landlocked African country that was once considered the continent’s bread basket into one that increasingly relies on food imports and donations.
Experts also trace the increase in pests and diseases affecting crop yields to the warmer conditions related to climate change.
The government has started promoting irrigation, conservation farming and water-harvesting to ensure the survival of the agriculture sector, on which 70 per cent of the population depends for employment and sustenance.
“A comprehensive irrigation development strategy is being implemented,” Professor Obert Jiri, permanent secretary, ministry of lands and agriculture, told DTE.
The strategy targets irrigation development using idle waterbodies (existing dams) and dams under construction, he shared. “Zimbabwe is currently the most dammed country in sub-Saharan Africa, with more than 10,700 dams already storing water, most of which is underutilised.”
A total of 221,000 hectares is currently under irrigation, the minister shared. “But this includes about 100,000 hectares under plantation crops, leaving about 120,000 hectares for cereal production.”
Jiri said for the country to return to its former glory of being the bread basket of the region, some 350,000 hectares of farmland has to be put under irrigation, and this is what the government is working towards.
Zimbabwe is not the only country that was late to adopt irrigation to climate-proof farming — the problem is felt across the continent. Only six per cent of Africa’s cultivated land is under irrigation, which poorly compares with other regions such as Latin America (14 per cent) and Asia (37 per cent), according to a 2018 report Water-wise: Smart Irrigation Strategies for Africa by the Malabo Montpellier Panel of agricultural experts.
The government is also establishing 900 pilot and learning sites to promote integrated rainwater harvesting. This follows a study by a local university that proved the technique to be an effective climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy, especially for smallholder farmers who constitute the bulk of the farmers in Zimbabwe.
Because of colonial land distribution patterns, most of the country’s 1.5 million small-holder farmers — those with less than 10 hectares of land — are largely found in arid and semi-arid parts of the country.
For over a decade, George Nyamadzawo, professor of soil and environmental science at Bindura University of Science Education in Zimbabwe, worked with smallholder farmer communities in the Marange area, an arid area on the eastern part of the country, to study water harvesting techniques.
From their research, Nyamadzawo and his team established that contour ridges and infiltration pits can reduce soil and water loss from runoff by more than 50 per cent and 75 per cent respectively, while increasing crop yields by up to seven times from 0.4 tonnes / hectare to 3 t / ha.
“We were promoting tied contours, infiltration pits and other water harvesting technology as methods that can be used by farmers in dry regions such as these,” Nyamadzawo explained.
“After integrating tight contours and infiltration pits, we managed to increase crop yields to at least three tonnes per hectare.”
He added that some of the farmers realised maize yields of 4-6 t / ha, while vegetable production increased 10 times.
This water-harvesting strategy is being implemented together with a conservation farming method that is called pfumvudza, a concept that emphasises efficient use of resources on small plots, aiming for optimal management and increased productivity.
Climate change expert Peter Makwanya told Down To Earth (DTE) that as water becomes increasingly scarce due to climate change, the future of farming is in irrigation, conversation farming and improved disease and pest management. “This makes water harvesting and conservation fundamental.”
Climate change is also having an effect on the country’s health outcomes, particularly for vulnerable populations. Vector-borne diseases like malaria are becoming more prevalent due to shifting climate patterns, while others like cholera, typhoid and dysentery easily flourish in conditions of limited water supplies.
“Harare (City Council) is producing around 320 megalitres of water per day and demand on a daily basis is 1,200 megalitres, leaving most residents without water, resulting in a situation where some of them resort to unsafe water sources,” Community Water Alliance (CWA) coordinator Hardlife Mudzingwa told DTE.
To improve the water supply situation, the government is currently undertaking an ambitious programme to drill 35,000 solar-powered boreholes in both urban and rural areas. “The boreholes are helping improve access to water for many people,” Mudzingwa said.
In addition to agriculture, water and health, other sectors such as electricity, forestry and biodiversity, as well as infrastructure and human settlements are also highly exposed to the depredations of climate change.
It is also causing grazing and water shortages as well as the heat stress that threaten the survival of the country’s wildlife species, especially those sensitive to heat, such as elephants, of which the country already has an oversized population.
A 2020 study in Hwange National Park projected a reduction of 40 per cent of elephant habitat by 2050 and a change in elephant population distribution because of climate change.
The Hwange National Park, home to the bulk of Zimbabwe’s 100,000-plus elephants, is now increasingly relying on boreholes for water, and some of the boreholes have to be deepened regularly as the water table drops further.
Final summary: Zimbabwe, once a thriving agricultural exporter, now struggles with food insecurity due to climate change. Rising temperatures, droughts and erratic rainfall have devastated rainfed farming. The government is promoting irrigation, water harvesting, and conservation methods to adapt. Climate change also threatens public health, wildlife, and water access, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable, climate-resilient strategies across sectors.
