Under the scorching Zimbabwean sun, cattle seek shade among stunted thorn bushes in the drought-prone district of Zaka, where crops wither due to increasing temperatures and changing weather patterns.
Severe lack of rain across southern Africa has hit the country hard, with government officials saying a quarter of the population faces starvation. Many villagers are forced to survive on wild fruit.
Maize, the country’s traditional staple crop, has suffered a series of poor harvests.
Photo: AFP
Late rains this year again wrecked the planting season and the little that is growing has often been destroyed by heat.
It may not help the immediate crisis, but science is providing a glimmer of hope for smallholder maize farmers in Zimbabwe.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center — known by its Spanish acronym CIMMYT — is conducting trials in Zaka on hybrid maize seeds adapted to tackle drought and high temperatures.
Photo: AFP
The seeds are developed to survive dry conditions with 60 percent less water than normal and in temperatures of up to 35°C, CIMMYT researchers said.
“If we get these new maize seed varieties that will help us a lot,” said Ceaser Chavizha, a smallholder in Zaka, Masvingo Province, south of the Zimbabwean capital of Harare.
Like many farmers in the region who rely on maize produce, Chavizha has been forced to survive on food handouts as his crops have been reduced to dried husks.
Photo: AFP
“We cannot continue with handouts as we have fields that we can work on to produce food for our own, so we hope the new maize seeds will help us improve our yields,” he said.
Maize meal crops are ground and turned into mealie meal, used to make porridge and other food, but the El Nino-induced drought has wrecked arable fields, grazing pastures and water sources.
The drought scourge is high on the agenda at UN Conference of the Parties climate talks in Morocco, where world leaders and experts are discussing how to implement the landmark Paris agreement that was signed last year. The pact aims to cap global warming at below 2°C, compared with pre-industrial levels.
Once referred to as the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe used to be an exporter of maize, but now requires about 2 million tonnes a year to feed itself, aid organizations say.
Cosmos Magorokosho, a senior scientist and maize breeder at CIMMYT, said the ultimate goal of hybrids was to help farmers develop long-term sustainable agriculture.
“Basically it means transferring genes from one plant to another type so that you create a new type that has the characteristics that you want,” he said.
He said CIMMYT had received US$500,000 funding from USAID to develop the new maize variety for drought-prone areas in east, central and southern Africa.
Magorokosho said that more funds were needed to extend the project, criticizing the Zimbabwe government’s delay in adopting new maize hybrids.
“There is a layer of testing that is required by the authorities which is a little bit long... We would wish it is shortened so that the varieties can get quickly to the farmers,” Magorokosho said.
CIMMYT, a non-profit research project headquartered in Mexico, is also working on a vitamin A-rich maize variety that is already in production in other parts of Africa and Latin America.
This year, Zimbabwe’s cash-strapped government declared a “state of disaster” in most rural areas, with at least 2.4 million people in urgent need of food aid.
Sekai Makonese, another small-scale farmer in Zaka, welcomed the potential impact of scientific intervention, saying she was counting on hybrids becoming widespread as soon as possible.
“Long ago, we used to farm maize with no problems, but now we have a problem with climate change and now our crops fail before we harvest,” she said.
The Zimbabwe government is yet to approve the mass distribution of the seeds, but the product is already available at some agricultural outlets.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six