Mbabane, Swaziland
May 3, 2007
Source:
IRIN News
 After
years of cajoling by nongovernmental organisations and
Swaziland's ministry of agriculture to plant drought-resistant
crops and diversify from maize, the staple food, small-scale
farmers are finally heeding the message.
"My maize all died in the heat, or it was stunted and the cobs
were so small they were only good to give to the cattle. But
look at my sorghum! It is doing well," said Nonhlanhla Thwala, a
widow in Lubombo, the country's eastern region.
The drought that devastated crops in the first quarter of the
year seems to have been the catalyst for small-scale farmers to
re-examine their passion for growing maize and experiment with
other plants, a move that food security officials hope will
prompt an interest in alternative crops.
Swazis view all alternative crops, meaning any crops that are
not maize, with a degree of suspicion, to the extent that
farmers will gamble on the chance of good rains rather than
plant a non-maize crop. It is a habit that has proved hard to
break, despite a 15-year cycle of poor rainfall in the Lubombo
Region. About 80 percent of economically active Swazis are
involved in small-scale farming.
This stubborn resistance to planting alternative crops is
surprising, as at one time sorghum was the staple food of
Swazis. "Maize was not always here; the white people brought
it," Thwala said. "Before, we grew sorghum - we cook it, and we
brew a traditional All these years the agricultural officer
advised the community to plant something other than maize. It is
when I remembered the sorghum field of my grandparents that I
did so
beer from sorghum, called 'umqombotsi'."
Despite the role of sorghum in Swazi culture, it has taken years
of inadequate seasonal rain to convince Thwala to plant
something other than maize - "maize is easier to handle and
cook!" - and dedicate a portion of her two-hectare field to
sorghum.
The contrast is startling. In one part of her field there is a
pathetic display of stunted maize, bordered by a solid column of
thriving sorghum plants, each crowned with a bountiful inverted
pyramid of seeds waiting to be harvested.
"All these years the agriculture field officer advised the
community to plant something other than maize. It is when I
remembered the sorghum field of my grandparents that I did so,"
Thwala said.
In the northern Hhohho region, the efforts by the agricultural
ministry to turn subsistence farming into thriving small
businesses by growing cash crops encouraged Ambrose Kunene to
grow mangoes, oranges and avocados.
"The maize did poorly this year; my storage bin will be full by
only a quarter. Usually it is half full in bad years, and full
in normal years. The fruit will save us - the avocados I
planted. I can sell them. The oranges and mango trees need some
more years to mature, but I thank God for the avocados," he
said.
To feed his family, Kunene relies on another crop that used to
be widely cultivated but lost popularity when years of good rain
resulted in bumper maize harvests. "My jugo beans have done
well; they need little water. I am also happy that my
watermelons did well; they received rainfall at the right time,
when they were germinating," he said.
Kunene points to the local type of watermelon - pale green, the
shape and size of a cantaloupe - resting on its vine, surrounded
by emaciated stalks of maize that did not survive the rainless
summer.
Abdoulaye Balde, country director for the World Food Programme
(WFP), commented, "There are places in the country, like the
Lubombo Region, where rainfall has not been sufficient for some
time to grow maize. Weather patterns are changing, and we may
never see good rains in those areas. There is no reason to grow
maize everywhere in Swaziland when people can grow cassava and
other alternatives."
Cassava is still grown sparingly in rural areas, but because it
requires little space and reaches maturity quickly, it can often
be seen in towns, growing on vacant lots or reaching above the
garden walls of homes.
Prudence Zwane, 25, a secretary who works in Swaziland's second
city, Manzini, grows vegetables to augment her family's diet.
The drought has led to food price increases, and a bag of maize
is expected to cost twice as much as it did in 2006.
"My tomatoes and lettuce did not do well, because I was at work
and they were not watered properly, but the cassava grew nicely
on its own. We use it for the starch portion of our meals,"
Zwane told IRIN.
The planting of diversified crops has also coincided with a
shift in cultivation techniques. "I planted early this year, at
the first rains. Everything I have is because I planted early,"
said Musa Ndlovu, 62, who farms in Shiselweni Region, in
southern Swaziland.
Shiselweni usually enjoys good rainfall, so farmers have
sometimes planted as late as December, but in recent years the
rainfall pattern has changed, a consequence attributed by some
climatologists to the effects of global warming.
Ndlovu had read the signs of changing weather patterns, and put
his maize seed in the ground after the first soaking spring
rains; by January, when the rain stopped, his crop was ready for
harvest.
Abagale Dlamini, an agriculture ministry official in the
Shiselweni Region, recognized Ndlovu's foresight compared to
that of his neighbours, who planted late and got poor crops.
"He planted early, but there were other factors. He used
fertiliser, and he managed his crop very well, weeding at the
right time and being scientific about his business. These are
lessons we are trying to instill in Swazi farmers," said
Dlamini.
After years of declining food production nationwide - in 2006 a
quarter of Swaziland's roughly one million people had to receive
some form of food assistance - this year, harvests worse than
ever have brought the urgency of food production home to
farmers. |
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