Broll El-Niño Drought: Responding to the Crisis in Zimbabwe

Southern Africa is currently in the grip of an intense drought driven by one of the strongest El Niño events recorded in the past 50 years.
Across large swathes of Zimbabwe, this year’s rainfall season has so far been the driest in recent years. In typical years families normally have enough food to eat after the main harvests begin in late March and April; that however is not the case this year.
This year is particularly difficult for farmers in the Chivi district in Masvingo Province.
The Chipinge district, which lies in the eastern highlands of the country, is about 400km from the country’s capital - Harare. Thousands of cattle in the region have died lack of pasture and water. Livestock remains and skeletons have become a common sight for the community here.
With funding from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is supporting 8,000 families. Through this project, livestock and crop farmers were able access subsidized animal feed and drought-tolerant small grain and legume seeds. They also received training on how to best manage crops and livestock during the drought.
From the proceeds received from the sale of the subsidized animal feed and seeds, the project has established a drought mitigation revolving fund in each of the seven-targeted district. This money is already being used by the communities to procure additional stock feed as well as rehabilitate water points for both human and livestock consumption.
The effects of the El Niño induced drought will continue to be felt across the different sectors of —agriculture, water and sanitation, energy, health and education. It is however projects like these, that will be required to assist vulnerable families to restore agricultural production, regain their livelihoods and better withstand future climatic shocks

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2. WS wilting Crops
3. WS Dry River
4. Rural Home in Zimbabwe
5: Rural Village
6: Dry swathes
7: WS Women Cooking Sadza (maize meal)
8: WS Stunted Crops
9: CU Stunted Crops
10: Homestead with Wilting crops outside
11: WS Philemon Madube walking with his dogs.
12: SOT: Philemon Madube, Livestock Farmer, Chivi district in Masvingo Province:
“Our biggest problem is water. If the rains had come in time, things could have been better but water is a problem for us.”
13: Chipinge District Town, Woman Walking
14: WS chipinge grass fields
15: Cow in grazing land
16: CU Cow hip bone
17: CU Cow Skull
18: Cow Skeleton with man walking in background
19: Walter outside his house
20: Wlater Mhlaba’s cattle in craal
21: Walter Mhlaba herding his cattle
22: SOT: Walter Mhlaba, Livestock Farmer, Musikavanhu village in Chipinge District
“I sold most of the cattle because they were starving to death. I couldn't fetch much for them, just $30 or $20. One of them fell and died in front of the buyer. I have dug many graves for the cattle. There is one over there. Some of them died when giving birth. The placenta would fall off because of starvation.”
23: Extension Worker entering homestead on motor bike
24: EST FAO offices in Harare
25: WS FAO Offices in Harare
26: Extension Worker greeting Villager
27: Farmer entering Warehouse
28: Farmer carrying bags of feed from warehouse
29: WS Bags of seed in Warehouse
30: Farmers receiving training in shed
31: Farmer paying cash for feed.
32: Woman balancing books with bags of feed in background
33: EST Chivi Livestock Development Trust Warehouse.
34: CU hands flipping through records of sales.
35: WS Woman counting bags of feed and seed.
36: CU water coming from pipe
37: WS 2 kids at water point.
38: WS failed crops
39: WS field with failed crops
40: Men hoarding sand from river
41: Harare Road
42: SOT: David Phiri, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Southern Africa
“The effects of El Niño, and a bad drought last year already, means that there’s been two bad seasons. So we expect that even next season - even if it is good - there will still be effects of these two seasons because farmers may not always have the seeds that they will need, some of the livestock will have died so they will need to restock. So normalcy may not return until about two seasons from now”.
43: Man Closing Warehouse
44: Woman Herding Cattle
45: Woman in field with healthy crops
46: Cow rushing for feed
47: Walter Mhlaba feeds cattle.
48: SOT: Macharia Kamau, UN Special Envoy for El Niño and Climate Ambassador:
The situation with El Niño and the onset of La Niña is that we still have over 60 million people who are faced with a very difficult reality on the ground. I have just come from a trip around the South Pacific, and I have been to Asia, and what we have seen there is that because these El Niño and La Niña weather events tend to be slow onset event, they don't command the kind of high media attention that an hurricane or an earthquake might. So, although they are real disasters, that corrode and erode the abilities of communities to sustain and survive, they don't get the same response. So, a lot of people continue to suffer, a lot of livestock is lost, crops are lost and the situation remains very dire on the ground.
49: SOT: Petteri Taalas, WMO Secretary General
We are expecting to go into La Niña phase from September to December this year, and will have reverse impact as compared to the El Niño that we just had, but it will also have an impact on food security in Africa, in the Southern part of Asia, and also in tropical Latin America.

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