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In 2023, meteorologists forecast an El Nino effect that would bring high temperatures and below-average rainfall to southern Africa from November 2023 to April 2024. They warned that this weather phenomenon would significantly impact agriculture, leading to water scarcity, food shortages and disease outbreaks.
This alarming news unsettled many farmers in Eswatini, particularly rural women farmers who vividly remember the crippling effects of the 2015 El Nino. With support from the Swaziland Rural Women Assembly (SRWA), an organisation dedicated to empowering women and advocating for their rights, these rural subsistence farmers turned to climate-resilient measures.
Instead of using hybrid seeds, they opted for indigenous seeds and practised conservation agricultural methods.
Sigcinaphi Mpila (53), an indigenous crop farmer and SRWA member, lives in Sigombeni, about a 30-minute drive from Manzini city, Eswatini’s nerve-centre.
“The early warning experts alarmed us. The farming season was uncertain and stressful. Rains were limited and the weather was difficult,” she said. “Against the odds, we managed to bring home some harvest."
“I've noticed that it was worse for farmers who planted hybrid seeds. The modern seeds couldn’t make it; the sun was too hot and rains were scarce. The economy is bad; many farmers could not afford the required bags of fertiliser. The government's subsidised tractor-hire programme has collapsed; tractors are expensive, and everything about farming is costly now. They couldn't cope, which is understandable. But, to our surprise, our indigenous maize seeds managed to give us a harvest to feed our families,” Mpila explained.
Mpila managed to harvest ten 50 kilogramme bags of maize. With the average price of a 50 kg bag in Eswatini being around $18, she hoped this harvest would sustain her family of six until the next farming season.
She highlighted the importance of using indigenous seeds as a strategy to address the challenges of climate change, especially for smallholder rural farmers. "The bad economy causes money to just vanish in our hands. However, conservation agriculture and indigenous seed use make farming affordable and help less privileged farmers meet their household food needs,” Mpila said.
During the last farming season (which ends in April and starts in mid-October), Mpila used animal manure. It is free and provides essential nutrients for crops, while aiding water retention during dry spells.
Mpila noted that they do not use tractors to till the ground but rely on hoes instead.
She reflected on how the changing climatic conditions have made sustainable development elusive for rural farmers. “My husband and I arrived in Sigombeni in 1994. Rain was plenty, and the harvest was huge. Life was easy. But look, thirty years later, we struggle to get even 50 bags of maize. The rain is scarce, money is elusive and life is difficult,” she lamented.
According to the website Climate and Change, Sigombeni is located at an elevation of 799.7 metres (2,623.69 feet) above sea level. The community has a humid subtropical, dry winter climate, typically receiving about 44.84 millimetres (1.77 inches) of precipitation and experiencing 99.14 rainy days (27.16 per cent of the time) annually.
Although maize is the staple food for Swazi households, the El Nino phenomenon prompted other rural farmers to implement mitigation measures and plant various drought-resistant crops alongside maize.
Zanele Dlamini (57), a Sigombeni resident, emphasised the importance of adopting resilient strategies to cope with the El Nino threat.
Dlamini is among many farmers who planted sweet potatoes and legumes to counter the impending drought. “This year, I didn’t plant maize,” she said. “We received early rains last October and rushed to plant maize, but we lost it because it never rained for the next six weeks. That was a wake-up call that we were going to have harsh weather ahead."
“I decided to plant legumes and sweet potatoes as a strategy. I knew that root crops might survive better than maize,” she explained.
Dlamini noted that climate change is a global challenge and that indigenous seeds and ancient farming methods are the best remedies for smallholder rural African farmers.
“African subsistence farmers must adopt our ancestors' methods of farming. We have to retain our traditional seeds. I have been planting indigenous seeds for decades now. My experience over the years is that no matter the severity of the drought, indigenous seeds manage to bring us yields. We don’t come back empty-handed as is often the case with exotic seeds,” Dlamini emphasised.
She revealed that the maize seed she uses at her matrimonial homestead is about a hundred years old, passed down through generations. “It was given to me by my mother-in-law; she also received it from the grandmother of the family,” she recounted.
Dlamini stressed the importance of sharing indigenous knowledge systems among women to improve conservation agriculture yields. Through SRWA, she visited Zimbabwe, where indigenous women farmers shared knowledge about utilising special grass that retains moisture for crops.
“We don't utilise this important grass in Swaziland because we are ignorant about its useful characteristics. It is not just a normal weed but makes crops resilient during dry spells by retaining moisture for the crops until the rain falls. We don’t have to hoe away this type of grass. For me, it has helped my sweet potatoes survive dry spells,” she said.
In June 2024, Melusi Masuku, the Principal Secretary in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, disclosed that about 243,500 people (20 per cent of the population) are in dire need of food aid in the country.
He projected that 303,700 people (25 per cent of the population) will face acute food insecurity and require food aid between October 2024 and March 2025.
These statistics, according to Masuku, are projected in the 2024 Vulnerability Assessment Committee report.
"These extreme weather events also accentuate existing risks for the most vulnerable groups, such as the rural and urban poor, small-scale farmers, the elderly, women, the sick, persons with disabilities and children,” Masuku said.
The latest figures from the World Bank indicate that Eswatini has a population of about 1.2 million, with an estimated per capita gross domestic product of $3,823 in 2023.
The report also indicated that Eswatini is among the most unequal countries in the world, with a Gini index of 54.6 in 2016.