Zimbabwe needs to strengthen the documentation of agroecological practices across the nation. The call was made by multi-stakeholders who participated in a meeting held at Fambidzanai Permaculture Centre in Mount Hampden. The meeting focused on ways to scale up agroecology in the country as the climate crisis worsens.
Speaking at the meeting, John Wilson, a seasoned agroecology practitioner highlighted the importance of understanding Zimbabwe’s agricultural history.
“We need to talk of things like what is our vision for agroecology and be clear about that. We also need to see where we have come from [in order to understand], how we have gotten in this kind of mess,” said John.
Jonathan Reeves from the Department for International Development Zimbabwe (DfID) urged stakeholders to portray, through tangible evidence, the potential for agroecology in resilience building and climate change adaptation.
“As I said and probably will keep saying, documenting and gathering evidence is a good way of us showing the contribution of agroecology,” said Jonathan.
Stakeholders agreed to have coordinated efforts towards documentation, applied research and collaboration among partners. The importance of engaging the media was also stressed and a steering committee will be created to identify challenges and opportunities for upscaling agroecology in the different provinces and districts across Zimbabwe.
The meeting was attended by approximately 50 participants representing government, community based organisations, non-governmental organisations, institutions of higher learning, farmer associations and the media. Fambidzanai Permaculture Centre, a member of PELUM Zimbabwe hosted this multi-stakeholder engagement meeting on 28 November 2019 with the goal of mapping the way forward for scaling up agroecology in Zimbabwe.