Collecting Rainwater and Using Mulch to Overcome Drought
Like many small-scale farmers, Elizabeth Mpofu from drought-hit Zimbabwe has had to adapt her homestead to cope with a changing climate, which the United Nations says threatens to push millions globally into poverty and hunger.
She has found ways of adapting - collecting and storing rainfall underground and using mulch to lock moisture in the soil - which have kept her family comfortable despite living in southern Zimbabwe's Masvingo province, one of the country's driest regions.
Techniques like hers can feed the world, she said on the sidelines of an annual meeting of the Committee on World Food Security, a UN body which brings together governments, business leaders, farmers and food experts to review the global response to food security issues.
"We can feed our people, we can feed even the whole world through agroecology," said Mpofu, who is general coordinator of La Via Campesina, a movement representing more than 200 million smallholder farmers.
Charel Irrthum