Stakeholders are ready to scale up livestock climate actions in Zimbabwe

Livestock stakeholders in Zimbabwe gathered at a national workshop organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Department of Livestock Research of the Ministry of Land, Agriculture, Forestry, Water and Rural Development of Zimbabwe to address climate actions in the livestock sector. The three-day event brought together 42 representatives from government, associated agencies, the private sector, non-government organizations, research institutions, academia, and the media.

The workshop served as a platform for participants to exchange experiences addressing climate change in the livestock sector. It achieved its objective of increasing awareness and knowledge among stakeholders. Participants identified key interventions in the sector to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. They discussed technical and institutional challenges and opportunities to enhance climate actions in the sector.

Livestock and climate change in Zimbabwe

The livestock sector in Zimbabwe is characterized by low production and productivity with low fertility and high mortality rates. Significant challenges in the sector are associated with animal health issues, inadequate nutrition and feed availability, genetic management, and infrastructure to access markets. Climate change in Zimbabwe is leading to increased frequency and intensity of droughts, heatwaves and decreased rainfall in specific areas of the country. In addition, poverty and low adaptive capacities among livestock keepers make the sector highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Zimbabwe has developed a Livestock Recovery and Growth Plan to address those challenges with sustainable development solutions. In its nationally determined contribution (NDC), Zimbabwe commits to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent relative to the business-as-usual scenario by 2030. The agriculture, forestry and other land use sector offers the highest potential for greenhouse gas emission reduction (61 percent), mainly through natural forest restoration and reducing land area burned. For the livestock sector, climate priority measures are only expressed as adaptation measures, such as climate-adapting livestock breeds, improving livestock management, fodder production, and livestock feeding strategies. However, due to a lack of appropriate mitigation assessment, there are no mitigation measures for the livestock sector in the country.

More about the workshop 

“The greatest threat to food security is climate change”, stressed Patrice Talla, FAO Sub regional coordinator for Southern Africa. “We are all witnessing changing weather patterns and more extreme events, floods, droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires, which increase the vulnerability of rural communities, resulting in food insecurity”, he added.  
The key recommendations of the workshop were to:

• Establish a permanent multi-stakeholder platform/task force on livestock climate action.
• Address policy issues and gaps in the area of land management, breeding, and animal health to overcome market barriers to livestock production in Zimbabwe.
• Generate more evidence to provide better decision support for smallholder farmers to make climate-smart decisions (e.g., on the selection of livestock breeds and husbandry practices)
• Increase research on methane emissions of different feeding trials and establish community-level breeding programs for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
• Build capacities of extension services on climate-smart practices and holistic management approaches, such as agroecology and permaculture.
• Recognize the role of livestock in rangeland restoration and appropriately implement land management plans to address the issues of veld fires.
• Carry out a livestock census in Zimbabwe.

Carry out more workshops in the field with the farmers, where policymakers can see climate action in practice and better understand the reality of livestock keepers.

The workshop was part of the FAO Flexible Voluntary Contributions (FVC) subprogramme on "Scaling-up climate actions to enhance Nationally Determined Contributions and climate and livestock," jointly implemented by FAO and MoLAFWRD. The FVC subprogramme aims to enhance mitigation and adaptation programs in the livestock sector, fostering climate resilience, ensuring food security, sustaining livelihoods, and aligning with the goals of the Paris Agreement.