THE weather outlook is favourable to Zimbabwe’s efforts to increase food production but economic challenges, aggravated by the coronavirus (COVID-19), could adversely affect yields.

The rainfall outlook for the November 2020-January 2021 period points to a higher probability of above-normal rainfall, which according to experts points to conducive conditions for the 2021 cereal crops.

However, the increased risk of excessive rainfall and flood damage is another lingering concern.

It is a windy day in Marange, Chanakira village. Small clouds scuddle the blue sky giving it a blurred look. About 110 kilometers southwest of Mutare, Norah Mwastuku (48) a subsistence farmer sits at the verandah and contemplates when the first rains will arrive. 

She anxiously looks at her fields, decorated with mulched holes.

Mwastuku is one of the farmers who have embraced the Pfumvudza program — a concept where crops are planted on zero tillage in a bid to conserve water and inputs on a small piece of land.

The federal government, through its Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, FMARD has concluded arrangements to clear 400 hectares of farmlands at Iyemero Ekiti axis of the State’s agricultural processing zone as part of its intervention programmes code-named ‘Agriculture Jobs Plan’.

The information was disclosed at a meeting of the State Coordinator of the FMARD, Mr Olufemi Daramola with the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Dr Olabode Adetoyi in his office in Ado Ekiti.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with financing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is providing technical and financial support to the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) on its Strategic Action Programme (SAP) implementation. A key component of this four and a half  year project is the demonstration of environmentally conscious livelihoods and socio-economic development in the Basin.

September 1, 2020 (Ezega.com) -- At least 12 people were killed and 10 others wounded in ethnic-based clashes over forest ownership rights in Ale special district in South Nations Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia, an official has said.

“Gunmen killed 12 persons and wounded several others in pre-arranged attacks in Gerama and Guroze localities in Ale district,” Government Communication Affairs Head of the district Sawra Gebeyehu told local media.

Main photo: new high-rise apartments are under construction in villages around Heze, in eastern China's Shandong province. Rural residents say these complexes are too expensive, too far away from their fields and ill-suited for farmers (Amy Cheng/NPR)

A farmer from Shandong province along China's east coast, Liu recalls how during Chinese Lunar New Year in January, he went out for a walk and came home to discover local officials preparing to demolish his home.

The Deputy Mayor of Addis Ababa City Administration, Takele Uma (Eng.), has told city officials to take immediate action in granting farmers, who possess farming lands in the city’s surrounding area, with a legally binding land title deed.

The order comes after a discussion forum on activities to be carried out pertaining land audit and registration process was held with various officials in the city administration and various stakeholders. The meeting took place inside the Assembly Hall of the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) on Thursday.

Intensive farming makes future pandemics such as Covid-19 more likely as wild animals carrying diseases known to infect humans are forced into increasingly close contact with us, a research report showed on Wednesday.

Writing in the journal Nature, a team of researchers from University College London (UCL) warned that animal pathogens are increasingly likely to make the leap to humans as land-use changes benefit animal hosts.

The UN estimates that three-quarters of land on Earth has been severely degraded by human activity since the start of the industrial era.

Living in the Lesotho mountainlands comes with more than its fair share of rigors, and small-scale farmers like Mrs. Maitumeleng Mabaleka struggle to survive. Land degradation and climate change have upended traditional agricultural practices for her and many others like her who struggle to make a living or grow enough food to feed their children and build a better future.

Main photo credit: Unsplash

Is the COVID-motivated shift enough to support all the laid-off garment industry workers? Who will really benefit?

Zimbabwe gave Malawi's late former president Bingu wa Mutharika a $124,111 (about R2,1m) “gift” in 2007 through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

This is according to an exposé by Alex Magaisa, a law professor at the University of Kent  on Zimbabwe’s controversial farm mechanisation programme. The programme's $200m debt is being borne by taxpayers.

Fires have spread across the majority of the landscape in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Fires of this number are not uncommon at this time of year in Africa. During the agricultural season of clearing field and planting new ones, farmers set fire to the remains of old crop fields to rid them of the leftover grasses and scrub.