Grappling for survival on the frontiers of climate change

Braving the sweltering afternoon heat, Adrian Munsanje walks for about ten kilometres every morning in search of pasture and water – a journey his herd of cattle must cover to avoid starvation. Munsanje, 50, has seen four of his cows slowly die because of the recent droughts ravaging across Zambia which also left more than 4.4 million people in the southern African country without access to food and clean water.

“This drought is more severe compared to a few years ago, when we could see green pastures nearby for our animals to graze, but that's no longer the case this year,” Munsanje told Rural 21. He noted that in his home area of Gwembe district, southern Zambia, local people’s entire way of life revolved around rearing livestock. They were dependent on them for money, for food, for labour and even for paying dowries.

National disaster and emergency declared
 

Over nine million people are suffering from an El Niño-induced drought that has crippled the country since late 2023, according to the Zambian government’s crop assessment data. For this reason, in the face of prolonged droughts, the agriculture sector in Zambia is battling for survival on the frontiers of climate change – a crisis that has made farmers' way of life increasingly difficult, leaving little food and water for their animals.  

“With heavy hearts, we’ve declared a national disaster and emergency as our country faces severe drought, caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, influenced by climate change. The prolonged dry spell has impacted both Zambia’s food & energy security,” Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema said recently during a national address. The Zambian government affirmed that the country had gone without rain at a time when farmers needed it the most as the drought hit 84 of the country’s 116 districts, affecting more than a million farming households. Zambia’s most cultivated and thirsty cash crop – maize – is one of the hardest hit. Others include cotton, soybeans, tobacco, groundnuts and peppers.

Oxfam warns that over six million people from farming communities in Zambia are facing acute food shortages and malnutrition until next growing season, which is twelve months away. Environmental experts say Zambia’s once vibrant agriculture sector is falling victim to rising temperatures, prolonged droughts and erratic rainfall that are threatening crop yields and livelihoods. Ironically, Zambia’s rivers, lakes and underground reserves account for 40 per cent of southern Africa’s water resources, but the water is not always available in the right place or at the right time.

“With this crop failure, I am really in trouble because I have a family of ten people, and I depend on farming to maintain them. I support my children’s education through agriculture and my little children need food the most, for their nutrition,” says Mable Mwanza, a smallholder farmer in Kafue district.

Irrigation systems should be prioritised
 

It is therefore emphatic that more needs to be done to serve smallholder farmers in Zambia. Moreover, this southern African country is only a minor emitter of the gases that drive global warming. With steadily rising temperatures, prolonged droughts and erratic rainfall threatening crop yields and livelihoods, Zambia’s once vibrant agriculture sector is falling victim to climate change. Agronomists say it's high time to prioritise irrigation in order to boost yields to between two and four times the levels of rain-fed agriculture, which could be an important part of the solution to a shortfall in productivity in the sector. In particular, drip irrigation is to be promoted because it is particularly affordable and effective. Even though drip irrigation is relatively inexpensive, small farmers still depend on government agricultural programmes and NGO programmes to help finance the systems.

Constance Mulenga, a smallholder farmer based in Chibombo district, central Zambia emphasises that with the onset of climate change, she is now eager to invest more in irrigation systems as a way to improve crop yields and enhance her household food security. “I cannot imagine how I would have managed to earn income without irrigation,” says Mulenga.  “It keeps my horticulture business running all-year-round.” Mulenga has been irrigating her winter maize crops with a combination of underground water sources and irrigation equipment for several years, as the impact of climate change has become increasingly clear.

Zambia's liquid gold
 

Notwithstanding being stung by drought, some smallholder farmers in the patched dry lands of Kazungula District, Southern Zambia, who had recurrently suffered poor harvests of maize (Zambia’s staple food) due to unpredictable rainfall, have turned to beekeeping as an alternative source of income. “Despite the challenges of droughts, I have seen firsthand how honey harvested from my beehives supports my family’s well-being. I use some of the honey for home consumption and sale, while the surplus is exchanged for maize, providing enough food for my home,” says Ronica Himambo, a full-time honey producer from Kabwe district in central Zambia.

But the honey sector is also increasingly suffering because it is being affected by charcoal burners cutting down trees to meet the ever increasing demand for charcoal. Moses Chishala is a small-scale farmer in Mkushi district of central Zambia. Additionally he has been trying to grow his honey business for years. “Every day, piles and piles of trees are cut down and transported to make charcoal, an industry that is depriving bees of their natural habitat and threatening the production of honey,” Chishala says. This is because Zambia, which is heavily reliant on hydroelectricity, is currently experiencing a power shortage such that the widespread drought which hangs over much of southern Africa has left water levels in dams worryingly low, and charcoal is the cheapest energy alternative available, but the bees need the trees.

According to the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), Zambia loses between 250 and 300,000 hectares of forest every year to charcoal burning, and the government is heavily investing in energy alternatives such as solar, whilst preserving the honey sector.

In view of these challenges, it is clear that only a decisive change in agriculture and the sustainable use of natural resources can enable the people of Zambia to have a resilient future that can meet the demands of climate change.

Autor: Derrick Silimina is a freelance journalist based in Lusaka, Zambia. He focuses on Zambian agriculture and sustainability issues. Contact: derricksilimina@gmail.com