Zimbabwe’s economy is still dominated by agriculture, with a large part of the population living from agriculture.
The EU and Switzerland are investing over 200 million euros in projects to make southern African Zimbabwe more food secure and resilient to climate change. In the middle: a goat that is not being milked.
Daisy Germany
Mutiusinazita in Buhera district, about 220 km southeast of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, is one of the driest areas in the southern African country.
The annual rainfall of 650 to 700 mm is not enough for profitable agriculture, so hunger and poverty are the order of the day.
Jesca Mutero, 46, was a typical Mutiusinazita resident: impoverished. Widowed. A small field that yielded little to nothing each year. Her home: a one-room cabin.
But the last four years have changed her life and that of her two children. She now owns 45 goats and has built a three-room house. Four years ago she traveled exclusively on foot, but now she owns a motorcycle.
“Before this project, I was struggling. We cultivated the land, but the harvest often failed. We were only able to make a living thanks to the goats,” she says.
Millions from Team Europe
Mutero is a member of the Mutiusinazita Buhera Livestock Association, a cooperative of 38 women who raise goats. The project is part of the €40 million Zimbabwe Agriculture Growth Program, which the European Union (EU) launched in 2016 to support the country’s livestock industry.
In March 2023, the EU and Switzerland expanded their cooperation with Zimbabwe to a program worth 207 million euros.
The stated aim of its Team Europe initiative for greener and climate-sustainable agriculture (TEI-CSA) is to establish more sustainable production in Zimbabwe and help vulnerable communities deal with climate-related problems.
Zimbabwe’s economy is still dominated by agriculture, with a large part of the population living from agriculture. The droughts, hurricanes and high temperatures that are occurring more frequently as a result of climate change are endangering the livelihoods of the rural population.
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Crossbred goats are in demand
Ntuthuko Nyathi, 37, from the arid area of Manama in Gwanda district, about 600km south of Harare, is chairman of the Gwanda Goat Producers Business Association (GGPBA).
The EU found them as poor small farmers who didn’t know how to market their work, he said. They were then trained on how to increase their production and productivity, improve their financial knowledge and better negotiate prices.
Members of his cooperative each received two breeding rams, crossbred Boer goats and crossbred Kalahari Red, as well as materials to build goat pens. The Boer goat from neighboring South Africa is large, the Kalahari red goat from the same country is very robust, both are bred for their meat. The cooperative members crossed the foreign breeds with local Matebele goats, which are generally smaller and adapted to the harsh conditions in Gwanda.
“We then started selling the animals across Zimbabwe, taking into account that Matebele goats have proven to have good genetics and can adapt to the different climate regions of Zimbabwe,” says Nyathi.
“By incorporating foreign breeds into our herd, we were able to open up a growth market because the demand for cross-breeds is high,” says the father of three, who now sells between 1,000 and 2,500 goats per year alone.
Switzerland pays 34 million
Alexandra Maseko, Press and Information Officer at the EU Delegation to Zimbabwe, says the €207 million includes all programs implemented from 2021-2027. The EU contributes EUR 134 million, France 17.4 million, Sweden 21.6 million and Switzerland 34 million.
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To date, there are more than 20 funding programs. In addition to more sustainable agriculture, their focus is also on promoting renewable energies, general livelihoods in rural areas and environmental and nature conservation.
According to Maseko, the Team Europe initiative is a good tool for building relationships with governments and other partners. The programs also aimed at economic viability.
Richard Nyamanhindi, program manager for communication and culture at the Swiss Embassy in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, sees a strength of the Team Europe initiative in the coordination of projects on site. This helps us learn from each other and spread successful models. “And we avoid repeating things that didn’t work.”
The desire for slaughterhouses
Jesca Mutero says the program changed her life. But there are still problems. For example, when it comes to taking their goats to the market in Harare. She complains about the poor road network – traveling on the roads is “a nightmare”.
The lack of reliable transportation to markets also affects Nyathi and his colleagues. He called on the EU to provide support in building slaughterhouses in communities so that they can slaughter their livestock locally and transport the meat to markets in refrigerated trucks.
His cooperative also wants to shift its focus from supplying meat to urban markets to selling breeding animals.
“One challenge is the drought in our region, so we need to produce feed,” he said. “Fodder gardens, irrigation water pipes, threshing machines and warehouses – I believe that if all donor countries follow this path, poverty in Zimbabwe will be alleviated.”
The government is not plowing
Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development, Anxious Masuka, supported the EU and Switzerland initiative. This is in line with the government’s initiative, which was launched in 2020.
However, the government’s sustainable agriculture efforts are focused on the production of maize, the national staple, as well as small grains such as sorghum and pulses. Under the government program, farmers do not plow their fields before sowing because the government believes this disrupts soil organisms and releases carbon dioxide.
“This is smart farming, disturbing the soil as little as possible. If we just dig holes and plant the plants, we leave everything else undisturbed,” he said.
At the national level, climate-proof agriculture is also promoted through better water use through dams and boreholes. Currently, 203,000 hectares of agricultural land in Zimbabwe are irrigated. “We want to reach around 350,000 hectares by 2025,” says Masuka. The government’s primary goal is climate-safe agriculture for crops.
“But you can also make agriculture for livestock farming climate-proof,” says Masuka. Because of the expected climate change, livestock farming in certain areas must be adapted to the respective agro-ecological zone. The government relied on smaller animals such as native chickens and goats in dry areas such as Buhera and Gwanda.
“This is what we are doing and all the development partners, including the EU, are coming to support the government in this effort,” Masuka said. In just three years since the government began its efforts, Zimbabwe has become food secure “because we have adopted climate-smart agriculture at the national and household levels.”
