Some farmers have tried to stay put in Zimbabwe. They are planting traditional grains like finger millet, pearl millet, and Sorghum. Some people have switched from irrigating their crops by flooding entire fields to using systems that only give the necessary amount of water next to each plant.
A farmer in Chitora, Blessing Zimunya, has tried to harvest rain for irrigation. Zimunya has a 100,000-liter tank that he uses to collect water from his roof. He gets water from a river.
The managing director of the organization that runs the clean water and hygiene project says that rain can make a difference. She points out that a Zimbabwean farmer named Zephaniah Phiri Maseko, who died before he could transform dry land into lush fields, was a well-known person.
Hundreds of farmers are participating in her program in the Zaka district in southern Zimbabwe. Some people in the province have begun to harvest rain.
In Zimbabwe's arid Mudzi district, 90-year-old Leah Tsiga sometimes goes for days without a meal.
AP photo/TSVANGIRAYIMUKWAZHI
The total number of farmers in Zimbabwe who have taken up the practice is very low. Only a few thousand small farmers in the driest provinces have tried it. Most farmers don't have the money to build large tanks to store water. Many people don't know how to start harvesting water.
Farmers can learn new practices to preserve soil moisture and find ways to make more money outside of agriculture with the help of other nonprofits. Zimbabwe has a plan to create 760,000 new "green" jobs in four years in fields like solar, hydropower, energy efficiency, and sustainable agriculture. These efforts are still in their infancy.
The city of Haarlem in the Netherlands and Zimbabwe's Mutare have a twin-city arrangement called the Haarlem-Mure City Link, which has commissioned a report on climate migration in the Eastern Highlands.
