A Story of Mr Debe from rural Mutoko District, Zimbabwe
In Nhire Village, which falls under Chief Chimoyo, Ward 15 of Mutoko
Mwanawashe Debe stands out as a typical resilient and adaptive farmer. He
leads a household of eight individuals and is one of the most successful
agroecology farmers in the Mutoko district. Despite the devastating prevalence
of the 2023/24 El Niño-induced drought, which made farming across the
southern Africa region extremely difficult, Mr. Debe’s experience exemplifies
resilience. In an area where agricultural activity is estimated by Agritex experts
to be below 30%, Mr. Debe’s 39 by 16-meter plot is expected to yield close to
0.7 tonnes of maize from a 39.
Mutoko falls under Zimbabwe’s Natural Agricultural Region IV – Semi-
Extensive Farming. This region experiences low total rainfall (450-650mm) and
is subject to seasonal droughts and severe dry spells during the rainy season.
Mr. Debe, a conservation agricultural practitioner, began preparing his field in
August 2023. During the preparations, he sourced a special type of manure
(compost-tree leaves and grass) from the wilderness, which he mixed with
animal manure and placed about 900 grams in every planting hole. He added
very minimal chemical fertilizers. Hoe-weeding, complemented by extensive
mulching, was used as a way of combating both weed growth and excessive
evaporation. In light of extremely minimal rains, every drop counted. The threat
of fall-armyworms (FAW) Spodoptera frugiperda threatened to reduce his
yield. However, his mitigation measure was to utilize organic pesticides
(strikes), sand, and manual scouting.
By David Bote, Project Lead, Climate Justice and Food Security
English