Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Anna Chibamu
ZIMBABWE is expected to boost its agricultural output in the upcoming 2021-2022 season as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region is likely to get normal to above-normal rainfall, climate experts have revealed.
This is according to a statement released Tuesday by the Twenty-Fifth Southern African Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF-25) Secretariat through SADC CSC which convened virtually meeting this week.
The meeting was held under the theme: “Impact of a warming ocean on our weather and climate”.
The past season saw Zimbabwe receiving above normal rains and a bumper harvest.
“Bulk of SADC is likely to receive normal to above-normal rainfall for most of the period October to December (OND) 2021, with north-western part of Angola, bulk of Democratic Republic of Congo, western and southern Madagascar, northern Malawi, northern Mozambique, western fringes of Namibia and South Africa, south-western United Republic of Tanzania and north-eastern Zambia where normal to below-normal rains are expected.
“The January to March (JFM) 2022 period is expected to have normal to above-normal rainfall for most of the region except for, south-western fringes of Angola, western fringes of Namibia and South Africa,” reads part of the statement.
SARCOF was held to present a consensus outlook for the 2021/2022 rainfall season over the SADC region where climate scientists from the SADC National Meteorological and/or Hydrological Services (NMHSs), the SADC Climate Services Centre (CSC) formulated this Outlook.
Additional inputs were acquired from African Centre for Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD) and Global Producing Centres (GPCs) namely, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF), South African Weather Service (SAWS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Beijing Climate Centre (BCC), Météo-France, Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), UK Met Office, Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and Korea Meteorological Agency (KMA). Inputs from International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) were also used in this work.
“The Outlook covers the major rainfall season from October 2021 to March 2022 and is presented in overlapping three monthly periods as follows: October-November-December (OND); November-December-January (NDJ); December-January-February (DJF); and January- February-March (JFM).
Zimbabwe’s northern half part and central Mozambique, southern Malawi, most of Zambia, southernmost DRC, south-eastern half of Angola, the bulk of Namibia, the western half of Botswana, most of the central and western parts of South Africa, western parts of Lesotho which are in the regional’s zone four are expected to have increased chances of normal to above-normal rainfall.
Those in zone five including Zimbabwe’s south-western half of Zimbabwe, extreme south-western Zambia, Caprivi area, south-easternmost Angola, the eastern half of Botswana, most of northern South Africa, eastern Lesotho, Eswatini, and southern Mozambique are also expected to have increased chances of normal to above-normal rainfall.
