Large swathes of croplands lie abandoned in Zimbabwe’s Mutare district as El Niño induced drought ravages the country.

Last year, the Meteorological Services Department confirmed that the El Niño episode was expected to be most strongly felt in the southern parts of Zimbabwe, spanning from west to east of the country.

Maize is Zimbabwe’s staple but the crop is becoming susceptible to the droughts. For various reasons many farmers in the country are still reluctant to grow drought resistant small grains like sorghum, finger millet and pearl millet.

However, philanthropic support to build climate change resilience among communities in Africa remains low. According to the African Climate Foundation, philanthropic support for climate change mitigation represented less than 2 percent of total philanthropic support in 2020. Of that amount less than 3 percent was disbursed in Africa.

The report noted that the philanthropic community has a critical role to play not only in helping to fill the finance gap left by developed economies but also in helping to shape a new narrative around climate and development through its investments.

But, in February this year Zimbabwe’s Public Service deputy minister, Mercy Dinha told parliament that: ‘People [facing hunger] will receive grain and they will have their food.’

However, Nicholas Mukundidza, a farmer and beekeeper in Mutare district told Alliance that the food situation in his area was now dire. ‘In as much people need food assistance, at the moment people are not yet getting any aid from philanthropic organisations or government,’ Mukundidza said.

Victoria Falls on the Zambian-Zimbabwe border runs dry

According to Mukundidza, philanthropy can provide a long term solution to hunger by funding sustainable food programmes. These programmes include short season crop varieties and horticultural projects which can boost food security.

Mukundidza added that beekeepers in the area needed financial support to expand their projects. ‘Currently, there are no organisations supporting beekeepers in this area,’ he said. Experts say there are more than 50 000 beekeepers in Zimbabwe.

Ishmael Sithole, chairman of Manicaland Apiculture Association in Zimbabwe, says beekeeping is  better than crop farming in times of droughts because bees do not need large pieces of land or huge amounts of water like crop farming. But due to limited financial support, many beekeepers in Zimbabwe cannot invest in new beekeeping technologies.

Another farmer in the area, Elliot Nzarayebani, adds due to drought the food situation was getting worse with each passing day. ‘As always, we’re urgently appealing to philanthropic organisations to assist us with food as a short term measure.’

But in the future Nzarayebani added that philanthropic organisations should assist farmers with irrigation projects and drought resistant crop varieties. ‘Droughts are becoming frequent but we can’t continue begging for food from these organisations each year, we need projects to sustain ourselves,’ he noted.

Nzarayebani has started a small rain water harvesting project at his small farm but his technology was still rudimentary – a few crudely constructed trenches and ponds to harvest rainwater from runoff.

‘I’m harvesting rainwater but I don’t have money to expand the project or to buy better technologies. I will be very happy if any philanthropic organisation or individual assist me with funding. I have a pond which I can use for a small fishery project but I have no money to kick-start the fish,’ he said.

The African Self-Help Assistance Programme (ASAP) executive director, Regai Tsunga says his organisation is deeply concerned by the precarious and potentially dire food security and nutrition situation in Zimbabwe’s Manicaland Province.

‘In complementing government effort as per our mandate, ASAP will be implementing appropriate household income strengthening interventions such as cash transfers and the community managed micro finance project in Mutasa and Mutare districts,’ says Tsunga.

The executive director says ASAP is also planning on rolling out a school supplementary feeding programme for lower primary school pupils and Early Childhood Development (ECD) toddlers at target schools. ‘In this vein, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education [in Zimbabwe] will be engaged for their buy in,’ he says.

Tsunga notes the need to intensify resource mobilisation efforts to avert hunger, malnutrition and starvation at this critical moment cannot be overemphasised. ‘Outside help is key and we look forward to partnering with stakeholders and donors to ensure food security and nutrition for our target communities.’

David Mutambirwa, the executive director and founder of Mhakwe Heritage Foundation Trust—an organisation working with grassroots communities –  agrees that the current food crisis in Zimbabwe is severe.

In the short term, Mutambirwa argues that philanthropic organisations could help fight hunger in Zimbabwe by providing food assistance to those who were most in need and distributing seeds and fertilizer to farmers so that they could plant crops for the next growing season.This could include investing in agricultural research and development to develop new and more resilient crops such as small grains like finger millet, sorghum, pearl millet among others; indigenous vegetables and preserving indigenous fruits.

Mutambirwa said philanthropic organisations should advocate for policies that support smallholder farmers and reduce food waste, ‘And working to address the underlying causes of hunger, such as poverty and inequality.’

However, it remains to be seen whether more charity organisations will chip in to build resilience to future climate shocks among farmers. But for now, the food situation in Zimbabwe remains dire.

Andrew Mambondiyani is a freelance journalist who has written for BBC, VICE News, The Daily Beast, YES Magazine and ZAM Magazine among others.