Hanson Tamfu interviews AMY SULLIVAN, Limpopo Basin Focal Project

The water available in the Limpopo River basin, which stretches across Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe and Mozambique, is both in great demand and highly variable. Managing it effectively and to the satisfaction of all users is a challenge.

Dr Amy Sullivan is the project leader of the Limpopo Basin Focal Project.

If Africa’s farmers had access to modern farming technology – they could easily feed the entire continent.

In Mozambique, differences in rainfall contribute to higher levels of poverty in drier areas.

Poverty levels in drier regions range from 67 to 85 percent, said Professor Firmino Mucavele, Director for Academic Reform and Regional Integration at Eduardo Mondlane University. He was presenting his analysis of agriculture’s true contribution to the Mozambican economy.

Malawi has put an end to subsidy coupon fraud by using farmers to hand them out to those who really need them. Malawi’s food production programme has been praised as a huge success in Africa and earned that country’s president and his government the Food Agriculture Natural Resources and Policy Network’s (FANRPAN) inaugural Food Policy Award in 2008.

Decisions about agriculture should be made in the outdoors, under trees and with the people whose livelihood it is to farm – not with suits in boardrooms.

Whenever policy makers gather to make decisions on agriculture, Linda Nghatshane and fellow members of the Nelspruit Agricultural Development Association in South Africa get frustrated.
Their frustration is not about the purpose of the meeting, but where the meetings are always held – nowhere near the farms.

God is not making any new water. It will not rain anymore in the Limpopo Basin.

Rodger Phiri is a wealthy man. And the most amazing thing is that he made his money through farming.

While many farmers across Africa have struggled to survive because of bad harvests, drought and bad quality of seed, Phiri is one of the few exceptions.

“The government subsidy programme in Zambia is a success,” Phiri declared.

Phiri, who is also president of Peasant Small Scale Farmers Association in Zambia, explained that government has been giving farmers 50 percent seed and fertiliser subsidies.

The Limpopo river basin located in Southern Africa, is covered by South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This river could be an important irrigation tool for surrounding farmers if its water level wasn’t that unpredictable.

Water supply in this 1750 kilometers large water body is unpredictable in terms of duration and amount which is a serious obstacle to agriculture in the regions it covers.

Farmers could be losing tonnes of crops every harvest just because no one has bothered to tell them …

Delegates at FANRPAN’s annual regional policy dialogue speak to Zenzele Ndebele about livestock and greenhouse gas emissions.

 

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