Forty kilometers outside Zimbabwe's city of Bulawayo, Moses Kumbweya, a small-scale farmer in Ntabazinduna, a peri-urban community, watched helplessly as his lettuce crop turned from lush green to dried brown leaves due to disrupted rainfall patterns caused by El Niño.
Kumbweya, who relies on rainfall-fed agriculture to grow cash crops like lettuce to supply local markets in the city, said the effects of climate change have been more devastating compared to the 2012 El Niño.
“This year has become worse with this heat, it is very bad,” he said, adding that climate change effects have “struck closer to home.”