Marondera farmers to receive tailored weather forecasts 

Source: Marondera farmers to receive tailored weather forecasts – herald

Ivan Zhakata

Herald Correspondent

FARMERS in 15 wards across Marondera District are set to benefit from localised weather forecasts and climate information as part of a new initiative aimed at strengthening climate resilience in agriculture through targeted support services.

The programme, being implemented under the European-African SAFE4ALL project, will provide 450 smallholder farmers with farm-specific weather data to enhance planning and boost productivity.

Farmers will also play a role in co-developing digital tools that will enable them to access this information via smartphones, thereby improving their ability to respond to rainfall patterns, temperature changes and other climate-related variables.

Speaking at the SAFE4ALL Technical Workshop underway in Harare, Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) operations director, Dr Prince Kuipa, said the project addresses a critical gap in the delivery of climate information to farmers.

“Farmers often complain that the weather forecasts they receive are wrong,” he said.

“The issue is not that they are incorrect, but that they are too general. This project will provide forecasts tailored to the actual location of each farm.”

The SAFE4ALL project is a four-year project being implemented in Zimbabwe, Ghana and Kenya led by Wageningen University and Research (WUR) in the Netherlands, in partnership with the Zimbabwe Farmers Union, the Meteorological Services Department (MSD), and Agritex.

Assistant Professor Spyros Paparrizos from WUR said the initiative is designed to improve agricultural decision-making by blending scientific models with local knowledge.

“There are a lot of assumptions in climate modelling, but they need to be validated on the ground,” he said.

“We are working with local stakeholders in Zimbabwe to co-create information that is relevant, contextual and actionable.

“The goal is to transform data into knowledge that farmers can use.”

He said the SAFE4ALL project also targeted the broader development challenges such as disaster risk management, food security and climate-induced migration. MSD deputy director Ms Tamburisa Pasingudya said the project is helping to bridge the gap between data producers and end users.

“The challenge we face is that farmers often do not understand the information we provide,” she said.

“SAFE4ALL is helping us tailor our weather and climate products to specific districts, such as Marondera, and to improve access and usability.”

Ms Pasingudya also highlighted the importance of the capacity-building component of the project.

“Through this partnership, we are gaining technical skills to produce point-based forecasts, including the use of artificial intelligence,” she said.