Agroecology is a holistic approach to agriculture that integrates ecological principles, social values, and economic sustainability.
It aims to enhance the resilience and productivity of farming systems while preserving natural resources and biodiversity.
Agroecology also promotes food sovereignty, which is the right of people to define their own food and agriculture systems.
Zimbabwe is a country that faces multiple challenges related to food security, climate change, environmental degradation, and poverty.
Agroecology is a holistic approach to agriculture that integrates ecological principles, social values, and economic sustainability.
It aims to enhance the resilience and productivity of farming systems while preserving natural resources and biodiversity.
Agroecology also promotes food sovereignty, which is the right of people to define their own food and agriculture systems.
Zimbabwe is a country that faces multiple challenges related to food security, climate change, environmental degradation, and poverty.
According to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Zimbabwe has close to 7.7 million people estimated to be food insecure as of July 2020, representing a 40% increase from 2019.
The country has also experienced severe droughts and cyclones in recent years, which have affected crop production and livelihoods.
Maize production dropped in 2019 to 770 000 tonnes from a high of 2.155 million tonnes in 2017.
In this context, agroecology can offer a viable alternative to conventional agriculture, which relies heavily on external inputs, monocultures, and mechanisation.
Agroecology can help farmers adapt to climate variability, diversify their income sources, reduce their dependence on expensive inputs and markets, and improve their nutrition and health.
Agroecology can also contribute to social justice and empowerment, by strengthening local knowledge, institutions, and networks.
However, agroecology is not yet widely adopted or supported in Zimbabwe.
There are several barriers that hinder its development and scaling up, such as lack of awareness, knowledge and skills among farmers and extension agents; lack of access to appropriate seeds, technologies, and markets; lack of supportive policies, regulations, and incentives; and lack of coordination and collaboration among stakeholders.
Therefore, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive agroecology policy in Zimbabwe that can address these challenges and create an enabling environment for agroecology to flourish.
Such a policy should be based on the principles of participation, inclusiveness, subsidiarity, and coherence.
It should also be aligned with the regional and international frameworks that promote agroecology and sustainable food systems, such as the African Union’s Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods (2014), the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (2015) and the Food Systems Summit (2021).
The first promising step in this direction is the Zimbabwe National Agricultural Policy Framework (ZNAPF), which adopts agroecology as the anchor to resilient and sustainable agriculture. The ZNAPF recognises the importance of agroecological practices such as conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, organic farming, agroforestry, and livestock integration.
It also acknowledges the role of smallholder farmers, women, youth, and indigenous communities in agroecology.
However, the ZNAPF is still a framework that needs to be translated into concrete actions and programmes at different levels.
Another initiative that also has the potential to catalyse the development of agroecology in Zimbabwe is the Resilience Building through Agroecological Intensification in Zimbabwe (RAIZ) project, which was launched in October 2022 with the support of the European Union.
The project aims to support climate-smart agriculture and livelihoods in three districts in Zimbabwe: Murewa, Mutoko and Mudzi in Mashonaland East province.
The project involves various partners from national agricultural extension programmes, government representatives, academic institutions, private sector actors, media outlets and national agricultural research and development organisations.
The RAIZ project will implement a participatory action research approach that will engage farmers and other stakeholders in co-designing, testing, and evaluating agroecological innovations.
The project will also facilitate learning exchanges, capacity building, policy dialogue and advocacy on agroecology.
The project hopes to reach 15 000 households directly and 45 000 households indirectly by 2026.
The current development of the national Agroecology Policy is yet another transformative move taken in the right direction by the government of Zimbabwe and other private players as Zimbabwe prepares to adopt agroecology in its food systems, policies, and programmes.
The government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development is working together with Fambidzanai Permaculture Centre, Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) Zimbabwe, Adventist Development & Relief Agency (ADRA) Zimbabwe, ActionAid Zimbabwe (AAZ), the Zimbabwe Land & Agrarian Network (ZiLAN), Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Zimbabwe, & Trocaire, to mention only a few, in developing a National Agroecology Policy.
Fambidzanai Permaculture Centre continues to take a leading role in this process after a short sabbatical due to some logistical challenges.
Fambidzanai has very expansive experience working together with smallholder farmers, agriculture extension agents, community-based organisations etc, the reason why the organisation was selected to lead this process.
Agroecology is a key strategy for achieving food security, climate resilience and sustainable development in Zimbabwe.
However, it requires a supportive policy environment that can enable its adoption and scaling up.
The development of the national agroecology policy is a big step towards enabling agroecology to be integrated into national policies and programmes.
The ZNAPF and the RAIZ project are the other two examples indicating the margin of commitment that the government of Zimbabwe and other private partners have showcased towards the integration of agroecology in national policies and programmes.
More efforts are still needed to ensure agroecology becomes a mainstream practice that benefits farmers, consumers, and the environment.
