CHIPINGE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Gertrude Siduna seems to have little urge for food for corn farming season.
Rather than put together her land in Zimbabwe’s arid southeastern Chipinge district for the crop that has fed her household for generations, the 49-year-old — bitter at repeated droughts which have decimated yields — turns her ideas to the costs and farming strategies of chilies.
“I pick my chilies from the fields and take them to the processing center close to my home. It’s simple,” she said. She’s received about $400 from the drought-resistant crop, and plans to grow some more. “Chilies are far better than corn.”
Siduna has been growing chilies for a year since being trained under a climate-smart agriculture program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The program was designed to strengthen small-scale farmers’ resilience to climate change-induced droughts, many requiring food assistance from the government or international donors. But as climate change worsens droughts and floods worldwide, government agencies and local operators have found that aid efforts can still be made more effective and financially sustainable.
Experts say rich nations like the United States, which have been the biggest contributors of planet-warming emissions historically, have a responsibility to fund humanitarian aid in the countries that are experiencing its effects first and most severely.
The U.S. is the world’s largest international donor of food aid, reaching over 60 million people in about 70 countries annually with direct contributions of food or via programs to help farmers adapt to extreme weather. USAID plans to mobilize $150 billion for climate-related initiatives, according to the agency’s climate strategy report.
In Zimbabwe, around 7.7 million people or almost half the country’s population require food assistance, according to government and United Nations figures. Frequent droughts are decimating people’s ability to feed themselves, a phenomenon worsened by climate change.
Switching from corn to chilies and millets
Water-guzzling white corn has been the staple crop of choice for rural farmers in Zimbabwe since its introduction to much of sub-Saharan Africa by the Portuguese in the 17th century.
But with the threat of drought, some, like Siduna, now think it may be better to buy the staple than grow it.
“I don’t lack corn meal, I just use my earnings from chilies to buy it from the local shops,” she said.
Unlike corn or other crops that she has typically grown, chilies do well in the hotter, drier conditions. And, because they end up in stores in the United States, they offer cash rewards.
“You have to continuously pray for the rain if you grow corn,” said the mother of three. “The crop just can’t stand heat. But chilies can. One is assured of a harvest, and the market is readily available.”
Other crops such as millets, a cereal tolerant of poor soils, drought and harsh rising situations, are additionally gaining traction underneath local weather resilience applications.
In Chiredzi, southeast Zimbabwe, 54-year-old Kenias Chikamhi describes rising corn as “a gamble … whereas with millets you have a good chance of at least getting something.” Millet was the nation’s staple earlier than the introduction of maize.
But not all of the corn is gone but. Zimbabwe’s agriculture ministry says it plans to extend land underneath maize to 1.8 million hectares (4.4 million acres) by utilizing farming strategies resembling digging holes into dry land and mulching to cowl the rising crops in addition to by planting drought resilient varieties that may higher deal with the shortage of rain.
The nation harvested about 700,000 tons of corn this yr, 70% down from the season earlier than and much wanting the two million tons required yearly for people and livestock.
Solar-powered irrigation as rivers dry
Farming strategies are additionally altering.
Another of USAID’s initiatives has seen a group backyard in Mutandahwe village, the place Siduna lives, irrigated by three small photo voltaic panels. The panels pump water from a borehole into storage tanks which are linked to the backyard faucets by pipes, turning the 1-hectare plot of greens like onions, leaf cabbage and cow peas into an island of lush inexperienced.
Solar-powered group gardens have been spreading throughout the district and far of the nation’s dry areas.
“We were struggling walking long distances to fetch water from rivers, and right now the rivers are dry,” said Muchaneta Mutowa, secretary of the plot. The plot is shared by 60 members, each growing vegetables they can eat and sell.
“We now have easy access to reliable water that flows from the taps (and) we don’t pay for the sun,” she mentioned. And cash from the sale of greens goes a protracted strategy to pay for household fundamentals resembling college charges.
Members pay a dollar each into a savings pot that can be used to lend each other for a small interest or pay for minor repairs “so that we are not always reliant on the donor,” said Mutohwa.
Working to make food aid programs more effective
Because USAID’s investments can be so consequential for receiving countries, it’s important they’re done right, said Lora Iannotti, a professor who studies global maternal and youth nutrition at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.
Richer countries like the U.S. have tended to use direct donations of surplus staple and commodity crops like corn and wheat as a way to benefit their own farmers, according to Iannotti’s research.
Iannotti has seen advances in food aid considering dietary variety, but thinks there’s room for improvement. Undernourishment became more prevalent after the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change is making hunger a more pressing issue than ever, with crises that resemble “stuff from 100 years ago,” she said.
Daniel Maxwell, a professor of food security at Tufts University, thinks countries providing aid also need strategies to address problems “inflicting the starvation within the first place,” whether or not that is local weather change, battle or different components. He additionally thinks nations want a extra balanced method together with initiatives selling well being, safety from violence or diet.
USAID and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have not but defined how meals help efforts is likely to be modified or altered by the incoming U.S. administration, however the delay on renewing expired Farm Bill laws does maintain up USDA programming together with meals help initiatives in quite a lot of methods, mentioned Alexis Taylor, undersecretary of commerce and international agricultural affairs at USDA.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, released reports discovering that USAID and its accomplice companies wanted to enhance the methods they measured the outcomes of their applications.
USAID says they labored with the GAO to handle its suggestions. The GAO has closed six of the eight suggestions, indicating passable response. The two remaining suggestions will likely be resolved with the discharge of the newest Global Food Security Strategy Implementation Plan in October, a spokesperson for USAID mentioned.
“We are committing a lot of U.S. taxpayer dollars,” said Chelsa Kenney, the GAO’s director for international affairs issues. “It’s important that we’re good stewards of those taxpayer dollars to ensure that the kind of programming that we are providing to these countries is really making a difference.”
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Follow Farai Mutsaka on X at @MutsakaFarai. Follow Melina Walling at @MelinaWalling.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations, including for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s requirements for working with philanthropies, a listing of supporters and funded protection areas at AP.org.
Farai Mutsaka And Melina Walling, The Associated Press
