Southern Zimbabwe Applies for $80m Green Climate Fund
Three years ago Martha Chitore turned over a fifth of her one-hectare plot to growing bananas, hoping the fruit would limit the threat of hunger brought on by regular failure in maize and sugar beans, even under irrigation.
As it turns out her plan is working, at least for the time being. The 53-year -old grandmother nets over $350 each year from banana sales, which money she can use to buy food and other day-to-day household supplies.
But massive food security risks lurk large in Mrs Chitore's Chibuwe village, a poor communal area deep in the Save Valley in eastern Zimbabwe.
"Bananas have helped us earn more money, but we still don't have enough rain or water for our main food crops," said Mrs Chitore, who also grows sugar beans and maize under a communal irrigation scheme.
Climate change continues to present new dangers, and worsen old ones, in Chibuwe, a region that stands at the forefront of climate damage in Zimbabwe, receiving the lowest amount of rainfall of between 300mm and 500mm per year.
Jon Wiley