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AGRICULTURE minister Anxious Masuka has urged farmers to embrace agroecology, saying it mitigates the effects of climate change and promotes sustainable agriculture. Agroecology optimises the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment while also addressing the need for socially equitable food systems within which people can exercise choice over what they eat and how and where it is produced.

What started as a discussion on agricultural policies in Zimbabwe and the policy making process, among the ZIMSOFF women and youth articulation ended in a fruitful policy dialogue between the two groups and the Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development on the 24th of June 2024.

Inappropriate seed and seed varieties, the loss of agro-biodiversity, insufficient inputs, degrading soils, and recurrent droughts are just a few of the many factors that have contributed to low crop productivity among smallholder farmers in resource-poor communities in Zimbabwe and much of the global south. Climate change is now making these threats worse. The Shashe Agroecology School for peasant farmers offers hope.

ZIMSOFF has been actively involved in advocacy work to advance farmer felt needs regarding a broad range of issues including peasant rights, climate justice, gender, agroecology. With climate change adding another layer of challenges to those already faced by women, the need to have a gender sensitive policy and structures to mitigate the impacts of climate change on women is imperative. Unlike agricultural practices, advocacy work is a long and tenacious process that takes long to yield results. Advocacy is not a path for the weak willed-it requires character and determination!

On the 15th of May, a delegation consisting of Heads of Cooperation from EU member states that were the Deputy Ambassadors from the Embassies of Switzerland, Netherlands, France, Ireland, and the European Union and representatives from organizations implementing EU-funded projects, namely COSPE, Action Against Hunger, LIPS-ZIM, and SKI, VSO, visited the Shashe Agroecology School to gain a deeper understanding of the resilience of agriculture in Zimbabwe in the face of worsening climate change, to identify current and potential areas of cooperation, and discuss the main challenges faced during implementation of various agroecological interventions.