Has access to Chinese satellites helped Zimbabwe’s agric revival?

Growing up in an urban area has one unfortunate result – you do not intuitively connect food with agriculture. All you know to do is walk into an air conditioned supermarket and pick out whatever your heart desires, even foreign delicacies. Wallet permitting, of course.

That means when you hear of droughts and famine, you’re kind of like, “Well, that sucks, ….anyway… you catch the game yesterday?” That’s about the extent of consideration you pay to that kind of news.

I don’t think we can blame you for this shortsightedness. Our education system doesn’t really ensure you understand these things, but thank God you know how a grasshopper’s digestive system works.

Here is the short summary:

• there will be no successful economy without food security (self-produced or traded for)
• the world over, as advanced as we are, almost all food is still grown or reared
• good rains or good access to water reservoirs is essential to grow and rear that food
• technology has massively helped increase productivity
• Zimbabwe has been getting erratic rains for a while now

Tech as a saviour

There is little we can do about the changing climate which is causing these droughts. There are some green initiatives out there but I would not hold my breath.

Especially when you consider that it would have to be a group effort, like a whole world group effort, to see any change. Even so, the change could be minimal or it could take decades. We don’t have that kind of time dear friends.

Our effort is best spent trying to still be productive even with these sketchy rain patterns. This is where technology comes in. It won’t solve all our problems but it can make a big difference.

Who knows the weather?

It appears our seasons have permanently shifted and every year we go through the “It should be raining by now, right?” conversations.

Satellites have long allowed for meteorological predictions. Yes, I know, they oftentimes get it wrong but they usually miss the mark on daily or weekly patterns but medium to long term, they are pretty good.

So, one of the major things we need is to be able to accurately predict the weather in Zimbabwe and we need satellites for that.

Zimbabwe has had access to satellites but it has been limited for the most part. We have had access to Eumetsat (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites). However, apparently we only had access to their geostationary satellites.

Geostationary satellites hover perfectly above the equator, spinning around Earth at the same speed Earth spins. Which means they are at the exact same spot, relative to the Earth.

This had implications on the scale we could monitor weather patterns at. We could not really go into as much detail as we wanted and we could not zoom into smaller regions.

Then back in 2016, we struck a deal with our Chinese friends that gave us access to some of their polar-orbiting (non-stationary) satellites. The deal was so we could receive and process data from China’s Fengyun-3 series of satellites.

As Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Services Department Director Amos Makarau, put it at the time’

It’s going to help us monitor weather even at a smaller scale and with more detail, something which we were not able to do with the satellite images from the previous geostationary Eumetsat satellite. It’s a revolution.

Fengyun-3

The Fengyun-3 satellites provide three dimensional atmospheric sounding capability and global data acquisition capability.

Which allows for the collection of more cloud and surface characteristics data, from which meteorologists may infer out atmospheric, land surface and sea surface parameters that are global, all-weather, three-dimensional, quantitative, and multi-spectral.

In simple English, they are able to see the atmosphere in 3D like a giant weather balloon. This 3D view lets scientists gather tons of data on clouds, air temperature, wind patterns, and even moisture levels.

They should help us predict weather more accurately and track climate change, all to help farmers grow more food.

You can check out what these satellites see here.

Eight years on, what’s changed?

The deal was struck in 2016 and it’s already 8 years since then. Has our ability to predict the weather improved? Well, that’s the wrong question to ask. What’s important to know is, has this resulted in decisive actions to combat the bad weather we have had?

I mean, at this point, we can all predict that rains come late and will likely be too erratic. What have we done with the information?

See, our problems go beyond a changing climate. Farmers, especially small to medium scale ones will tell you that they don’t really have the means to irrigate their crops. Here is their situation:

• low rains
• no irrigation equipment
• even if they had it, erratic electricity supply is still a problem

In fact, the following example shows just how dire the situation is. A headline that reads “Chinese-owned Farms Struggle to Help Improve Food Security in Zimbabwe” in a popular Chinese paper sums it up nicely.

Wanjin

Zimbabwe and China struck a deal that led to the formation of Zim-China Wanjin Agricultural Development Company in 2010. The Chinese would lease 7 farms (10,000 hectares) on which they would showcase their agricultural prowess and teach us how it’s done.

Through this initiative, Zimbabwe was supposed to benefit from technology and expertise transfer.

How has all that fared? Both the Chinese and Zimbabwean governments will tell you it has been a success. That’s not entirely false.

Wanjin assists 3 farms (Hunyani, Arda Sis and Krystal) in producing wheat, tobacco, maize, cotton and soybeans. 

“We have produced 150,000 tonnes of grains in Zimbabwe over the past decade, and created 500 jobs for local people. In the harvest season, we hire as many as 2,000 employees,” said Wanjin GM in 2023.

That’s not nothing but 14 years after the deal was struck, you would have expected to see more. What gives?

Water and electricity

Well, in 2019, a former Wanjin director said that while the company had five farms in 2011, it has since reduced them to three, citing poor availability of water and electricity.

So, we only see 3 farms instead of the 7 they could lease because it has been quite the challenge to farm in Zimbabwe. Said former Wanjin director,

To be honest, since we started in 2011, we are reducing the size of our operations. Previously, we took five farms in Zimbabwe, but now we have only three because in some farms, it’s a bit difficult to get water. There is no river, no dam.

You dig a borehole, but no water comes out. Even now, we are facing challenges. We bought 30 pivots for our farms, but we are struggling to use them because of the Zesa (electricity) issue. So, it’s very difficult to expand our operations at this stage

If that is what the experience has been for 2 governments, what hope is there for your average farmer.

The Chinese did not mince their words, ZESA is unreliable and if irrigation is to work, farmers have to go solar.

We saw Wanjin install a 1.14MW solar plant at at Sisi farm in 2023 and one wonders how many farmers will be able to do the same. Especially given that they still might invest in boreholes and the lot and still not find the water they need.

Satellites, solar, funding, …

We are not able to properly make use of the advanced data we get from the Chinese satellites we have access to. That is because of our inept electricity supplier and the challenges faced by smallholder farmers in accessing loans.

I know the loan issue will irk many because we did try some communist type command agric stuff that led to loan facilities being abused.

That may be but it remains that commercial farming, the kind of farming that will lift Zimbabwe requires massive capital resources that our farmers do not have.

They need to invest in irrigation systems and then the solar plants to power said systems. That’s on top of work understanding the changing climate and research into new types of drought resistant seeds and the like.

Fortunately, the government does help with the climate stuff as do some other organisations on the cheap. The government also tests out seeds as do other organisations.

The likes of ZimTrade will help the farmers’ produce go beyond our borders too when all is said and done.

That means the biggest challenge remains that of funding. The same problem startups in other sectors are all too familiar with.

Also read:

• ZESA consulting on deployment of floating solar panels at Kariba, for now, here’s the state of power in the country
• Zim could meet 50% of electricity demand using solar by 2025, says govt. From which projects?
• You are $1,200 in debt right now because Zim owes former farmers US$3.5bn, Paris Club US$3.8b