4-H Zimbabwe held a Climate Change Indaba with Agritex officers, the Member of Parliament for Chiwundura, community farmers, the local council members and other representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture. The meeting was held at the Midlands` Ministry of Agriculture offices in Gweru. The aim was to discuss the challenges faced by farmers, to identify solutions, and also to plan for farmer agricultural training sessions to be held in the Chiwundura district.
The Head of Agritex and District head Mr E. Mubaiwa presided over the meeting. He highlighted the need for continuous engagement for continuous learning. He stated that development is for everyone and that it is important for people to work together in harmony. He explained how everyone from the community benefits from the education imparted by the Agritex officers, therefore such initiatives are essential for the enhancement of livelihoods.
The participants suggested the need to the need to have village business units in every village and more frequent farmer field schools.
John Muchenje, 4-H Zimbabwe Executive Director explained that the organization seeks to do the following activities in the district, thus; field-based farmer activities on land preparation and crop establishment, crop management, and post-harvesting. Moreover, the training of communal farmer champions who will become trainers within their communities.
A white paper has been produced which will be used as an advocacy tool. The key highlights were;
1. Need for mechanised conservative farming since its labour intensive,
2. Expansion of the ward-based nutrition gardens to become village-based nutrition gardens since in most wards there are over 30 villages,
3. Introduction of educative agriculture and climate change fair, which brings farmers together, networking and learning from each other.
4-H Zimbabwe is on a drive to ensure the Chiwundura community is resilient and has adequate strategies and resources to adapt to Climate Change. The organisation is set to establish eight (8) solar-powered women-led community gardens in the district.
The Member of Parliament for Chiwundura Rural District and Deputy Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Hon S. Kwidini further emphasized the need for community people to work together. He explained that Chiefs, Village heads, Councilors, and Agritex officers are all development agents, hence the need to cooperate for the progress of everyone.
