HARARE, - ABOUT 11 southern African nations are set to converge in the capital on Friday to map out strategies on how to counter possible effects of the El Nino drought, which is looming in the entire region. The regional experts drawn from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and the hosts Zimbabwe will put heads together to find practical solutions to the dry spells that are threatening acute food shortage in the entire SADC region.Already the breakaway Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) has since advised its member farmers to aggressively invest in the construction of water reservoirs, dams, irrigation equipment and short term seed varieties in order to counter the threatening drought.
Lack of planning ahead of such looming droughts have in the past landed the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC) in food crisis during, particularly in the periods between 1991-1993 where thousands of people in the countryside, livestock and wild animals perished.
The 1991-1993 severe drought were a good lesson for the region, which tomorrow would see a committed SADC regional member states come together to brainstorm on practical solutions in dealing with the looming drought.
Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Services Department Director, Dr. Amos Makarau, said the conference would see weather and climate experts from the SADC countries cooperate in finding answers to the looming crisis.
“The conference starts on Friday, 14th August and ends on Tuesday, 25th August. There is a possibility of a drought this summer season,” said Dr.
Makarau.
He said the implications of the regional drought were quite severe hence the need to urgently address the crisis before the looming disaster would strike.
According to the veteran climate and weather expert, Dr. Makarau, indicators show that tropical waters in the eastern Pacific were building towards causing serious drought to the entire SADC region.
“SADC regional governments should start investing heavily on dams, irrigation and short term season varieties as opposed long term and the rainfall that is not tapped.
“Presently the entire world is battling to contain the effects of the global recession, and if we are caught unawares again, then we would be finished. I guess this is the right time for the SADC region and Africa to act now,”
said Elisha Hodhela, a successful commercial farmer based in Chikombedzi communal lands, lowveld, located some 500 kilometres south-east of Harare.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) President, Wilson Nyabonda, told CAJ News on Tuesday (today) that his farmers throughout the southern African nation had embarked on short-term and drought resistant crops such as sorghum, maize and tubers.
Zimbabwe used to be the bread basket of southern Africa, but from the year 2000, when Zimbabwe’s former liberation fighters embarked on the invasion of white owned commercial farms, the situation has never been the same.
To date, majority rural based people, including those that residing in cities depend on food handouts donated by the United Nations (UN) food agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP), World Vision, Red Cross Society and Care International, among others.
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