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By Charles Dhewa Livestock-based development interventions in many African countries have largely focused on replacing local breeds with imported ones. This is in spite of imported cattle, pigs, goats, and chickens struggling to survive in dry regions characterized by climate-induced shocks. The fact that most imported livestock breeds survive on specially designed commercial feed makes…
Despite being confronted by the adverse impacts of climate change and COVID-19, grassroots women are united in the fight for disaster mitigation, adaptation, recovery and resilience building. This emerged today at the 2020 Grassroots Women Resilience Building National Convention organised by the Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association (ZPHCA). This year’s edition of the Resilience…
Agriculture and mining are driving the Zimbabwean economy hence the need for serious investment in the two sectors, Dr. Anxious Masuka, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, and Rural Resettlement has said. He made the remarks during an interface meeting with stakeholders in the agricultural and mining value chain during the 110th edition of the…
Addressing the wild meat trade and restoring landscapes, key to preventing the next pandemics On 28-29 October, Dr. Peter Daszak, Sir Robert Watson, Elizabeth Mrema and more than 250 other experts at the Global Landscapes Forum Digital Biodiversity Conference ‘One World, One Health’ called for integrating biodiversity and landscape perspectives into efforts to prevent future outbreaks of zoonoses – diseases of…
As the 2020-2021 agricultural season kicks off, commercial farmers have been urged to capitalise on local initiatives for the installation and servicing of farm machinery and equipment to ensure the smooth flow of operations. Speaking at a media briefing after the unveiling of Power Giants Private Limited’s Mutare branch, the firm’s general manager – Manicaland Province…
One of the leading golden leaf players in the country, Norton Tobacco is proving to be the missing link that farmers need to succeed. Riding on its unique product offers, Norton Leaf Tobacco is providing tobacco farmers with essential farming inputs each and every season. Speaking to this publication, Mr. Richard Machingura, the Norton Leaf…
By Charles Dhewa The rate at which food systems is becoming a buzzword suggests the world has quietly shifted from a farming systems approach to a food systems approach for good reasons. A food systems approach looks at the entire ecology through which food is produced, consumed, lost, value added as well as roles of…
They say empower a woman to empower the whole community. This statement is proving to be true through youthful female climate change champions who are doing wonders in their communities to adapt to and mitigate the phenomenon. In an interview with Spiked Online Media, Elizabeth Gulugulu Machache, the Project Manager of the African Youth Initiative…
The AgriPitch competition is open to youth aged 18 to 35 who hold African nationality or citizenship and who submit their application online by 23rd October There are just hours to go until the 23 October deadline to enter the African Development Bank’s (www.AfDB.org) AgriPitch Competition. Selected entries by African youth agripreneurs will be invited…
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on October 21 two new food security programs, Takunda and Amalima Loko. These five-year programs will target nearly 490,000 Zimbabweans in Matabeleland North, Masvingo, and Manicaland provinces. “These two new programs will build on the United States’ investment in Zimbabwean people and tackle the root causes…
The Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism, and Hospitality Industry, Hon Mangaliso Ndlovu has urged the youths to be innovative and craft ways of grabbing opportunities offered by the global threat of climate change. The Minister made the remarks at the Post Fifteenth Conference of Youth (COY 15) and the 25th Climate Change Conference of Parties…
The Global Landscapes Forum Biodiversity Conference will be held under the theme, ‘One World—One Health’ and will run on 28 and 29 October 2020 from 9 a.m. Bonn (UTC/GMT+1). WHAT: Halting biodiversity loss is essential to tackle the climate, food and global health crises, but how to turn ambitious green recovery pledges into concrete solutions that are feasible…
IFAD aims to deliver an overall programme of work of US$10 billion for the IFAD12 period (2022–2024), with over half of investments allocated to Africa Ten African Heads of State have issued a strong call to other world leaders to increase their funding to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) (www.IFAD.org) or risk jeopardizing…
By Charles Dhewa While mobile phones and related technologies are being touted solutions to the absence of agricultural data in developing countries, such technologies are just tools not knowledge. Tools by themselves will not provide strategic solutions without knowledge. In fact, in the wrong hands, the tools may increase socio-economic inequalities in ways that further…
By Wambui Gichuri COVID-19 lockdowns and decreases in incomes have generated a double demand shock – increasing the number of poor and vulnerable people, particularly in Africa’s cities World Food Day 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization, but celebrations on 16 October were muted due to the coronavirus….
The United Nations Resident Coordinator, Ms. Maria Ribeiro has called for sustainable investment in food systems to achieve healthy diets for all. In her remarks to mark this year’s World Food Day held under the theme “Grow, Nourish, Sustain Together with Nature” Ms. Ribeiro called on stakeholders to invest in a healthy and sustainable relationship…
• In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and the mounting threat of climate change, forests and trees are vital for the rural poor in countries around the world• However, the poor are rarely able to capture the bulk of benefits from forests• A global science assessment analyses how forests can realize their potential to…
By Anyway Yotamu The Communist Party of China (CPC) has been hailed for its work in promoting the eradication of poverty and a massive decline of impoverished rural areas through government support methods. Addressing delegates at the International Seminar on Poverty Eradication and Responsibility of Political Parties hosted by the Communist Party of China virtually,…
By Freddie Ndindana When you are passing or driving next to a beautiful farm with crops that are in good shape and well managed, sometimes you start to think of farming or ask yourself what farming takes. You’ve dreamt of becoming a successful farmer, and you’re prepared to venture into the ever-changing world of the…
By Transparency International We take forests for granted. We forget they’re the reason we breathe, until they burn. We don’t know of all the ways they keep us safe, until we’re sick. We ignore how our way of life threatens them, until they’re gone. Forests are not spared by corruption: illegal logging, illicit wildlife trade, land grabbing and drug…
The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Antonio Guterres has said he was delighted by the decision of the Nobel Committee to award this year’s Prize for Peace to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The World Food Programme is the world’s first responder on the frontlines of food insecurity. Mr. Guterres said in a world…
By Charles Dhewa Building reliable markets and strengthening the adaptive capacity of farmers should include bold actions to reverse the infiltration of indigenous knowledge by imported knowledge systems. While indigenous knowledge systems are being diluted and fractured at several levels, the most glaring example is in indigenous poultry. Having noted that health-conscious consumers are now…
At a time when the nation is grappling with hunger, the Sally Mugabe Central Hospital nutrition garden has been hailed as an innovation to feed the patients and ensure a healthy citizenry. In an interview with Spiked Online Media, Richard Ngwende, the Sally Mugabe Central Hospital Agronomist said the nutrition garden was started in February…
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday commenced cash disbursements in the scale-up of the Urban Social Assistance programme thanks to funding from the United States through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID’s support will provide relief for vulnerable families in eight urban areas across Zimbabwe struggling to meet their daily…
Africa accounts for about 12% of the world’s coffee production and the high-quality and taste of coffee from the continent are loved by coffee connoisseurs worldwide Coffee farmer, Francois Dadi Serikpa (https://bit.ly/3l10941), from Gnamagnoa in Côte d’Ivoire, joined Nestlé’s (https://www.Nestle-cwa.com/) Nescafé Plan (https://bit.ly/34fT6Oe) ten (10) years ago. The coffee farms that had been in his family for generations…
Steward Bank has partnered with businesses under parent company Cassava Smartech Zimbabwe to launch AgroFuture, a new agribusiness product that is set to improve agricultural production in the country. The product – to be delivered in partnership with Cassava entities EcoCash, EcoSure, Vaya, Moovah, and EcoFarmer – offers tailor-made solutions to specific needs of the…
By Charles Dhewa Failure to implement agricultural policies by many African countries stems from processes through which such policies are developed. When different stakeholders do not adequately participate in the process of developing a national agricultural policy, their commitment in terms of technical and financial support is often very weak. Those leading processes of developing…
The African Risk Capacity Limited (ARC Ltd), the commercial subsidiary of African Risk Capacity Group (ARC Group), has announced a partnership agreement with Pula to deliver best-in-class agriculture index insurance products to protect African farmers from climatic risks. Every farming season, African farmers are exposed to a wide range of climate risks including drought, excessive rainfall, pests…
The Zimbabwe Plant Breeders Association (ZPBA) and Agritex are promoting the “Good Quality Climate Smart Seeds and Blitz Soil Conditioning under the famous Pfumvudza/Intwasa Demonstration” program being spearheaded by the Ministry of Agriculture. On 17 September 2020, the Zimbabwe Plant Breeders Association (ZPBA) and AGRITEX hosted a field demonstration event in Ward 4, Mhondoro District….
By Anyway Yotamu Zimbabwe is a low-income country whose economy and livelihoods depend hugely on natural resources with an ambition to leapfrog it to a middle-income economy by 2030. The backbone sectors namely mining, manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism rely heavily on forest, land, and water resources for inputs to the production of goods and services….
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and partner Fintrac, marked the successful completion of the five-year Feed the Future Livestock Development program at a virtual event on September 16, 2020 under the theme: Celebrating Commercialization of Smallholder Beef and Dairy Production. Since 2015, USAID’s Feed the Future Zimbabwe Livestock Development program assisted more than…
By Charles Dhewa When your favourite indigenous fruits are in season, take a few samples and keep in the freezer for six months to a year and see what happens. Although touted as part of the solution to food and nutrition security in Africa, cold chain is yet prove its relevance for indigenous fruits and…
The continued spread of COVID-19 and the scorch of climate change in Africa have caused economies to contract substantially. Lives and livelihoods are put at risk, as COVID-19 and the associated economic challenges continue to spill into an African food crisis. Before COVID-19, half of Africans faced food insecurity (https://mck.co/3mty5rQ) due to climate change and other factors, of…
AGRF online will convene the most senior decision-makers of governments in the same digital space as grassroots players along the agricultural value chain The African Development Bank (https://www.AfDB.org/en) returns as a top-tier partner of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) – Africa’s largest agriculture conference – to be held online for the first time from…
Enzymes that control a plant’s response to lower oxygen levels could be manipulated to make vital crops resistant to the impacts of flooding triggered by climate change, new research shows. Co-author Mark White, PhD, in the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney described climate change as a major global issue, particularly for its…
By Nevson Mpofu War veterans are set to be on a collision course with the government’s decision to compensate former white farmers. The War Veterans Welfare Pressure Group said it is against the idea of compensating white farmers yet the former liberation war fighters in the third month without receiving their salaries. Speaking in Harare…
Professor Mthuli Ncube, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development has praised the signing of the Global Compensation Deed on 29 July 2020 as a major milestone in the restoration of trust and cooperation between the former farm owners and the Government of Zimbabwe. Below, Spiked Online Media reproduces a joint statement by Professor Ncube…
By Zimbabwe Civil Society Organisations Scaling Up Nutrition Alliance (ZCSOSUNA) The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID 19) pandemic is a health and humanitarian crisis threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the country. The pandemic comes at a time when more than 4.3 million people are severely food insecure in rural…
By Charles Dhewa For more than 10 years, Samson Mundodzi a gifted blind farmer from Nyazura in Manicaland province of Zimbabwe used to be accompanied to Mbare market for selling his commodities. Like all other farmers, Samson would have his commodities loaded onto long distance buses that passed through his home and get to Mbare…
For the first time, researchers can predict how extremely large West African storms may behave when, for example, they approach a cityBy Future Climate for Africa and Researchers at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) Ground-breaking scientific research will make it easier to predict the path of some of the world’s most powerful…
By Anyway Yotamu In Beitbridge District, 2 250 households are receiving supplementary subsidized livestock feed from the Program for Growth and Resilience (PROGRESS) under the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) in the wake of the drought being experienced in the country. The intervention is being implemented as part of adaptive programming to the resilience-building efforts…
Recently, the UK contributed £17 million to support the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to continue their efforts to combat the desert locust surge in East Africa and improve early warning and forecasting systems. Because of contributions like this and other contributions that have been made by countries including Germany, Saudi…
By Charles Dhewa Needs assessments are some of the most under-rated and under-utilized resources in African countries. Development agencies that often start some work in communities with a baseline study often do so for purposes of getting donor money as opposed to fully informing and guiding their interventions. In some cases, the baseline study is…
By Charles Dhewa In much of the world including developing countries, COVID19 has repositioned communication as the key driver in project implementation. Before the pandemic, many organizations were reluctant to increase the communication budget. Working from home and restrictions in the movement have seen ICT channels and tools moving to the centre of most communication…
By Charles Dhewa From the Masaai livestock owners in Kenya failing to access veterinary products to farmers in Lupane district of Zimbabwe failing to access usual markets due to lockdowns, COVID19 has resulted in uniform collective grief among food producers across Africa. To the extent dealing with droughts, locusts, fall army worm and other shocks…
