The photos you see below were taken in the first half of 2020 and they show crops of the staple crop in Zimbabwe, maize (also known as corn), in a field.
The gaps you see in the field were left by crops that didn’t make it from the heat and lack of rains.
This crop was the second crop that was planted in early 2020 after the rains had a false start in late 2019.
The rainy season starts from November and ends around March/April. Usually, by April the maize will already be dry and ready to harvest.
As you can see in the photos, there was nothing to harvest.
Over 90% of farming in Zimbabwe and Africa is rain-fed.
Because of lack of irrigation, when rains have a false start, a lot of farmers in Africa will plant again during the season hoping that the rains will now be coming seriously. In 2020, the rains had a false start and the farmers planted again when the rains had another false start, and the rains never came back, seriously.
When the rains are good, from about December to February, this same field that you see in the photo will be green all over with maize plants during the rainy season, and then in April and May, the field will now have dry maize plants.
Rain-fed agriculture only only supports agriculture during the wet/rainy season. When farmers harvest in April/May, the maize that they harvest must last them a year until the next harvest. If the rains do not come the next rainy season, the farmers and general population will be faced with hunger and starvation.
In the 2019/2020 season, the same season that the maize crop above was on the ground, the United Nations reported that 8 million Zimbabweans were facing acute food shortages and the World Food Programme was appealing to the world for US$200 million to buy 200 000 tonnes of grain to feed 4.1 million Zimbabweans, about half of the people who needed food.
Yet when the rains are good, there is enough food for everybody.
I then started Prosper on Farms to ensure that every farmer has access to irrigation so that there will be enough food in Zimbabwe at all times.