BY DR. TONY MICHEL MONDA
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), states over 65 percent of the population of the Southern Africa region depends on farming, which includes livestock.
This makes agriculture and livestock production the principal livelihood activities and source of income for most sub-Saharan African rural households, including in Zimbabwe where rural smallholder farmer produces approximately 80% of agricultural production.
“Livestock are absolutely essential to the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of farmers and pastoralists across the continent,” says David Aronson, a specialist in awareness and advocacy at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya.
In recent years however, there has been a decline in agricultural production in the region, triggered by drought and climate change which has resulted in an increase in the number of people living below the poverty line.
The unprecedented heat being experienced in Zimbabwe and most of southern Africa, due to
climate change, is giving rise to fears of the return of the El Nino meteorological phenomenon. In Zimbabwe, there are foreboding signs of El Nino’s impending impact on the 2023-2024 agricultural season.
The looming drought is expected to affect much of Southern Africa where smallholder farmers are already experiencing the effects of climate change. This is seen in decreased rainfall days in
Tanzania and increased drought and heat in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe where already in most parts of the country stunted wilted stalks of dehydrated maize bend over in the heat with sagging undeveloped cobs prematurely desiccated. Climate-variability is also threatening the Continent’s livestock sector. Cattle have been singled-out as a particularly vulnerable group in Africa.
Livestock are so important to Africa that according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “the future of African livestock will influence the development of the entire Continent”.
Meanwhile researchers warn that vast swathes of the Continent could be stripped of cattle in the next few decades due to climate-induced heat stress as early as in 2045; with dire Implications of looming disruptions on the livestock value-chains and livelihoods for the Continent.
According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), global, regional, and national food systems face major challenges and require fundamental transformations. More than ever, responding to these challenges will require a systems-oriented, multidisciplinary approach to reshape food systems so they work for all people sustainably.
Researchers have also concluded that by 2050 as many as 370 million cattle globally could suffer from one or more days of extreme heat, as could some six billion chickens.
As the cloudless, open blue skies blaze heartlessly across the country, it is uncharacteristically hot for the time of the year. Apprehensive rural farmers and villagers murmur disquietly that “there is no hope of a good harvest this year”.
Nationwide food insecurity looms for man and beast.
In some rural areas of Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central, Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland North, emaciated Mashona, Sanga, Nguni and Zebu cattle with jutting ribs and limpid eyes, seek shelter from the heat of the mercilessly sun in the shade of drying Msasa or Mnondo trees.
Their solemn swollen eyes gaze at the dry mud-cracked edges of waterholes. A United Nations report states the overall global temperature in 2023 rose 1.1ºC above the pre-industrial level, consequently 2023 is reported the warmest year on record.
According to sciencedirect.com, many regions in southern Africa are affected by changes in rainfall amounts and distribution, increased heat waves and droughts, leading to decreased rangeland
productivity. A study by sciencedirect.com to evaluate the potential economic costs of heat stress in the future, established that by the end of this (21s) century, livestock farmers may face financial losses between $15 and $40 billion annually. Most of the loss will affect poor, tropical countries of South America, Asia and Africa, including Zimbabwe where livestock farmers face serious risk to production without adequate coping strategies put in place.
Regions identified as the most vulnerable to climate change, such as Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, are also regions where farmers and rural communities rely the most on livestock for food, income and livelihoods, and where livestock is expected to contribute increasingly to food security and better nutrition. ”Livestock are critical to nutrition and food security, rural incomes, and resilience in smallholder mixed crop/livestock and pastoral systems in much of Africa”, states a paper published by the African Development Bank (AfDB). “In most African countries 60-80 percent of rural households keep livestock as mobile and liquid assets, income generators and for household food security and nutrition. In addition, manure and animal traction make indirect and critical contributions to crop production”.
Heat stress is just one way that climate-variability threatens the continent’s livestock on a massive scale. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), notes: “Climate change is also impacting the production of feed and forage and the availability of grazing land and water, while worsening climate-sensitive diseases and disease vectors”.
The current weather conditions have already taken their toll in districts of Mashonaland West, Central and North, where farmers are reporting the resurgence of diseases this farming season (2023-2024), including cattle Theileriosis; one of the four major tick-borne diseases in Zimbabwe – namely Anaplasmosis (gallsickness), Babesiosis (redwater), Theileriosis (January disease) and Heartwater.
At the same time, about 20 percent of pastures are considered as degraded through overgrazing, compaction and erosion. This figure is even higher in the African rural dry lands where inappropriate policies and inadequate livestock management contribute to advancing desertification.
For Africa, this portends a monumental challenge of maintaining a sustainable supply of animal-source food for a growing population.
Dr. Tony M. Monda holds a BSc. DVM, MPVM and is a veterinary medical epidemiologist and public health correspondent in Zimbabwe. E-mail tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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