Zimbabwe's Environment and Natural Resources Minister Francis Nhema said Thursday that Zimbabweans have to change the way they do things if they are to mitigate the effects of global warming.

He told Xinhua in an interview that moderate to high temperatures being experienced in the country were a result of global warming.

Normally, temperatures should be low below 20 degrees Celsius at this time of the year as it is the middle of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, but they get as high as 27 degrees Celsius in some areas, even though they sometimes fall drastically overnight.

"What we are saying is that these effects of climate change are real and we might have to change the way we do things in agriculture, industry and water resources management. We cannot plan according to the old seasons any more because they are fluctuating," he said.

The best way forward is re-afforestation because trees will hold our water, our wind and our soil, he said.

"Many people are wondering whether the high temperatures are not a precursor to another drought: eerie thoughts indeed given that the country has just emerged from another poor agricultural season caused by poor rains," the minister added.

Zimbabwe, once reckoned as breadbasket of Africa, slid into a net food importer over the past decades. Climate-change-linked drought, as well as many other factors, is to blame.

Global warming has also caused flooding in some areas, particularly along the Zambezi river basin in northern Zimbabwe.

President Robert Mugabe is advocating the development of irrigation plants and equipment to combat the effects of climate change which continues to gnaw into the country's yields.

The UN World Food Program estimates that up to 1.6 million Zimbabweans require food aid in 2013 as a result of poor yields. Endi

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