Southeastern Zimbabwe Research Articles

Bounding the frontiers: An assessment of the Gaza’s relations with the Hlengwe of Zimbabwe (1835–1895)

The Hlengwe people of southeastern Zimbabwe are one of the sub-groups of the Tsonga people who straddle parts of Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. In Zimbabwe, they constitute the only Tsonga group resident there. Like other sub-groups of the Tsonga, orthodox paradigm of their history suggests that they were once attacked, defeated and subjugated by the Gaza of Soshangane. Alternatively, they are said to have been forced to pay tribute to the Gaza which on its own is incorrectly viewed as subjugation. As a result, they are assumed to have been subjugated by the Gaza during the latter’s dominance of southern Mozambique and eastern parts of Zimbabwe. Consequently, they are referred to as Shanganes, the name applied to people who were part of the Gaza under Soshangane and his successors. This article investigates the Gaza’s and the Hlengwe’s movements and activities to determine if indeed the two groups’ interactions resulted in the Gaza’s subjugation of the Hlengwe. In a broader sense, it looks at the manner in which the borders of the Gaza are often overstated.Contribution: This work contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of African history, especially minority groups.

Indigenous Knowledge on the Management of Ungomwa among the Ndau of South-Eastern Zimbabwe

The article explores the indigenous Ndau people’s conceptualisation of ungomwa (infertility) and its management. More specifically, I investigated the Ndau beliefs and practices around ungomwa. I conducted a literature review, informal conversations and made observations for data collection. I delimited the study to causes of infertility among Ndau males, its detection, effects, and how it is managed within Ndau cosmology. The findings showed that, although beliefs on ungomwa were varied, it is an undesirable condition. It results in childlessness, which presents serious problems; victims suffer personal grief and frustration, social stigma, and ostracism. Using an indigenous knowledge perspective in a patriarchal Ndau community, I argue that men want to maintain their ego and masculine grandstanding in the community and usually blame women for the infertility. More important to note is that there are indigenous knowledge systems that can be employed to (mis)manage infertility if detected early at youth. If detected when a man is already in marriage, measures are put in place to ensure children are born in the family. I argue that ungomwa is a gendered, cultural, and psycho-social sexual reproductive health challenge that can be innovatively managed for human flourishing.

Gender differentials in primary processing and market participation by mopane worm harvesters in Zimbabwe: insights from the COVID-19 pandemic phase

BackgroundGender disparities in access to inputs, markets, financial inclusion, and participation in strategic value chains are major developmental challenges in emerging economies. Participation in the edible insect value chain has become an essential source of income, food, and nutrition in some African countries. This paper uses a bivariate probit model to examine the gender differentials for primary mopane worm harvesters’ participation in primary processing and market participation during COVID-19 in Southeastern Zimbabwe. Using a structured questionnaire, the data were gathered from 393 primary harvesters in five purposively selected wards in the Gwanda District of Zimbabwe. This study examines the gender differentials for primary mopane worm harvesters’ participation in primary processing and market participation during COVID-19 in Southeastern Zimbabwe.ResultsResults show that women are likelier to participate in primary value addition to preparing for the lean season opportunities. There are gender differentials in the participation in markets during COVID-19. Results show a significant negative relationship between participants' ages and female engagement in mopane processing and a positive correlation with female involvement in lean COVID-19 season marketing. Male harvesters’ participation in the lean market during the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly correlated positively with age and education level, while the choice to participate in the lean market was negatively correlated with the dependency ratio.ConclusionsCollaborative, community-centric, and gender-accommodative development of the mopane worm value chain is important. Focal issues are on supporting primary value addition for lean season market participation and during market shocks such as COVID-19. This can be a leap towards gender equality and improving livelihoods of women and men in mopane harvesting areas. The study recommends marketing and district-specific policies explicitly addressing mopane worm harvesting and marketing affects market participation and primary value-addition decisions.

“Disempowered by the transition”: Manipulated and coerced agency in displacements induced by accelerated extraction of energy transition minerals in Zimbabwe

The haste to reach the net zero emissions target induces a high demand for energy transition minerals (ETMs) required to produce renewable energy technologies. This demand also translates to “accelerated” extraction of the ETMs exposing communities to displacement risks and associated human rights abuses. In order to acquire access to ETMs deposits, governments and extractive companies are collaboratively displacing communities residing on or close to these deposits through manipulation and coercion. The theme of manipulated and coerced agency is the foci of this manuscript. I show how the “urgency” to decarbonize and fast- tracked ETMs mining interact to induce displacements in absence of due diligence. Urgency by mining companies to extract minerals interacts with weak governance and corruption to induce forced resettlement characterized by manipulation of consent in regions where ETMs are concentrated. This article focuses on the case of Buhera district (south-eastern Zimbabwe) where communities were displaced due to lithium mining activities at the Sabi Star mine (run by a Chinese mining company known as Max Mind) to elucidate how manipulation and coercion were utilized to get people to agree to “unfair” resettlement terms. The resettlement programme was deliberately jumbled to confuse peasants so that they consent to a flawed displacement scheme. In the aftermath, people agreed to hasty removals coupled with unfair compensation resulting in their impoverishment. The Buhera case is an epitome of the political ecologies of energy transitions and displacements prevailing across the global south, that needs to be urgently addressed if we are to achieve a fairer and just energy transition. The article leans on the political ecology arguments to argue its case. Information regarding this case was gathered through listening to publicly available documentaries, extensive literature review, media reports and qualitative interviews. In the discussion and conclusions, important steps to enhance the resettled people's agency and participation in ETMs resettlements are recommended. These steps potentially promote successful resettlements that translate into just and sustainable transitions.

Violence on the horizon: Horizography and serendipity in the ethnographer’s Zimbabwean field

Horizons are notoriously difficult places to carry out research because they keep on shifting and thus deny researchers the necessary immersion to do participant observation, or even to gain access to such horizons for fieldwork. Drawing on fieldwork in southeastern Zimbabwe, this article critically discusses several horizons in a context of witchcraft-related violence and interparty political violence. Arguing that methodologies which focus on the past and present are not sufficient to research what is still on the horizons, that is, what is emergent and has not yet settled in the field for traditional fieldwork, the article postulates a methodology called horizography as suitable for researching what is still on the horizons. Put differently, horizography is partly premised on insights from the emergent quantum anthropology which is based on ongoing discoveries in quantum mechanics which recognize action at a distance in a world where there are entanglements between empirical reality and nonempirical reality, and, of course, different worlds. Besides, drawing on the emergent areas of foresight studies, anthropology of the futures and anthropology of anticipation, the article contends that there is need for innovative methodologies which focus on emergent futures.

The Gender Dilemmas of Kupindira Among the Ndau People of South-Eastern Zimbabwe

This article problematises gender and ethical issues surrounding kupindira, as an infertility management measure, among the Ndau of south-eastern Zimbabwe. This phenomenological qualitative study utilised interviews and observations to collect data from 20 participants who comprised both the old and the young, male and female. Some of the findings revealed that while the kupindira practice saves marriages, it promotes gender inequalities and is characterised by ethical dilemmas. Using cultural hermeneutics, the article concludes that while kupindira forms part of Ndau traditions on infertility, it must be reconstructed to make it a safe practice for human flourishing.

An assessment of local community engagement in wildlife conservation: A case study of the Save Valley Conservancy, South Eastern Zimbabwe

AbstractIn southern Africa, human and wildlife interactions have significantly increased over the past decade, resulting in complex conservation conflicts. As humans and wildlife share space, stakeholder engagement becomes a critical component of wildlife management and transformative conservation. We analysed the conservation conflicts in the Save Valley Conservancy (SVC) in south‐eastern Zimbabwe. Data were collected between April and May 2020 through focus group discussions and interviews with purposively sampled informants. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were adopted in this study. The results revealed that the absence of an effective, inclusive, integrated multi‐cross‐sectional stakeholder engagement plan is a primary contributing factor to conservation conflicts in the SVC. In conclusion, our study found that community participation in land use decision‐making is limited within the SVC, and this is a general lack of consensus among the community members on viable land use options. This study proposes an integrated, cross‐sectional stakeholder working framework that not only informs conservation practitioners but also fully addresses the prevailing conservation conflict scenarios. These conflicts emanate from the exclusion of humans from protected areas and the encroachment of wildlife in human settlements.

An outbreak of Gynanisa maja (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) larvae in the south-eastern lowveld of Zimbabwe.

The larvae of speckled emperor moths (Gynanisa maja) are important plant defoliators in savanna ecosystems of southern Africa and a valuable food resource for indigenous communities. Population explosions of G. maja larvae can negatively impact an area's primary productivity thereby altering herbivory patterns and associated ecosystem processes. Harvests of the larvae enhance socio-economic livelihoods of local people by providing a source of protein and improving household incomes. We report on a population outbreak of G. maja larvae that occurred in south-eastern Zimbabwe between December 2022 and January 2023 and discuss the ecological and social significance of the event. A total biomass weight of 5811 tons of G. maja larvae was estimated over the area of the outbreak and extensive defoliation was recorded in Colophospermum mopane trees. We could not associate the outbreak with any obvious environmental conditions and speculate that it may have been caused by subtle triggers that are not easily identified.

Influence of planting basins on selected soil quality parameters and sorghum yield along an agro-ecological gradient in South Eastern Zimbabwe

Planting basins are an important soil and water conservation technology. This study evaluated the effects of basins on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, aggregate stability (Ima), bulk density, soil moisture retention and sorghum yield in agro-ecological regions III, IV and V of Chipinge district. The experiment consisted of three treatments; namely planting basins (basins) with goat manure and inorganic fertilizer application, hand hoeing with similar fertility amendments (FP+) and hand hoeing without fertility amendments (FP). It was hypothesized that planting basins with fertility amendments would improve the selected soil quality parameters and sorghum yield. Only planting basins significantly (p˂0.05) improved soil quality parameters in the 0-15 cm depth and bulk density, Ima, SOC stocks ranged from 1356 to 1451 kg/m3; 314 to 450 and 14.18 to 25.55 Mg ha-1 respectively. Planting basins significantly increased (p<0.05) sorghum yield relative to hand-hoeing practices (FP+ and FP) with average grain yield of 2.68, 1.72 and 1.32 t ha-1 in agro-ecological regions III, IV and V, respectively. When compared to FP+ and FP, basins increased grain yield by >130% in all the 3 agro-ecological regions. The hypothesis was accepted and it was concluded that basins improve soil properties and sorghum grain yield in agro-ecological regions III, IV and V. Considering the soil and crop productivity benefits highlighted in this study, there is a strong justification for the widespread promotion and adoption of planting basins in semi-arid agro-ecological regions of Zimbabwe.

A new four-stage approach based on normalized vegetation indices for detecting and mapping sugarcane hail damage using multispectral remotely sensed data

Hailstorms have increased in frequency and intensity over the past decade causing substantial losses in agriculture. Since hailstorms often hit a wide area with no detectable pattern, relying on traditional field-based methods to assess crop damage is difficult. The aim of this study was to develop and test a new four-stage normalized vegetation index approach for detecting the severity of hailstorm damage on sugarcane plants in a large estate in south eastern Zimbabwe. The following six spectral indices were computed for the period before and after a hailstorm event to assess the extent of hailstorm damage on sugarcane: Green Chlorophyll Index (GCI); Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI); Normalized Difference Senescent Vegetation Index (NDSVI); Red Edge Chlorophyll Index (RECI); Normalized Difference Tillage Index (NDTI); and Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI2). Then, the spectral differences were computed for each index separately and the difference maps are reported as delta (Δ) indices. The results of this study show that within one week and even two weeks after a hailstorm, ΔNDTI, ΔNDVI and ΔRECI were consistently able to detect and characterise the severity of sugarcane damage. When used in partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), ΔNDTI performed best in mapping the severity of crop damage throughout the large estate. ΔNDTI was able to discriminate three different levels of sugarcane damage with an overall accuracy of 90% and a Kappa value of 0.85. Combined these results imply that ΔNDTI computed using multi-spectral datasets within a fortnight after a hailstorm is a promising tool for generating reliable information about the severity of sugarcane damage by hailstorms. Such spatially explicit information is useful for creating customised crop insurance packages sensitive to damage incurred by the farmer.

Chilonga cultural landscape in the shadow of eviction: living cultural heritage, livelihoods and minority Indigenous people’s rights under threat in Zimbabwe?

ABSTRACT Indigenous people’s cultural heritage is increasingly being subjected to political, social, and economic pressures in the light of capitalism, foreign investment, and displacement perpetuated by external development programmes. Shangaan people in Chilonga communal lands, Chiredzi District in Masvingo Province of south-eastern Zimbabwe are victims of such regimes as the government seeks to evict them from their ancestral lands. The Zimbabwean government’s plan to relocate the Shangaan people from their communal territory is problematic for many reasons; it shows the government’s failure to uphold human rights, respect property rights, Indigenous rights, and cultural rights. The displacement has a longer-lasting socio-cultural, ecological, and economic impact, affecting cultural diversity and socio-cultural interactions as the government plans to forcefully remove families from their heritage and way of life and change their community set-up. This may, in turn, lead to new patterns of inequalities, loss of cultural heritage, and vulnerabilities. This article disentangles such dynamics and sheds light on endangered human rights, cultural heritage, and its practitioners.

Vegetation phenology patterns in semi-arid savannah woodlands of Gonarezhou National Park, Southeastern Zimbabwe

Vegetation phenology (VP) patterns of semi-arid savannah woodlands ecosystems are essential for sustainable management and conservation since they are indicators of the health status of protected national parks. However, monitoring VP changes are intermittently carried out in semi-arid savannah woodlands ecosystems despite the links to ecosystem function, status, health and service. The paper analyses VP metric patterns, during the start of the season (SOS), maximum vegetation (PEAK), end of the season (EOS) and length of the growing season (LGS) trends from 1981 to 2015. This study was carried out in Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) in Southeastern Zimbabwe. Shrublands, broadleaved deciduous forested woodlands and mixed cover samples were used to depict existing VP patterns. Derivation of VP using remotely sensed Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data was done using the TIMESAT 3.3 programme. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the land cover differences while Mann-Kendall (M-K) and Sen's slope tests were used to analyse time-series trends. Due to differences among the different land cover types in GNP, there are spatial variations in phenology, with the SOS, PEAK and EOS indicating later dates significantly. VP spatial and temporal patterns vary markedly as a result of differences in land cover. Further research in patterns of VP using fine and coarse satellite imagery in GNP is required. VP studies need to be linked to distribution and abundance of large mammalian herbivore species.

Climate shock response and resilience of smallholder farmers in the drylands of south-eastern Zimbabwe

Climatic shocks are exerting pressure on livelihoods of Zimbabwe's smallholder farmer—who irrigate only 2% of their farms. The smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas are more exposed to drought because of their limited ability to cope with shocks and their greater concentration in less favorable climatic regions. This study was done to analyze shock-response approaches, which farmers use to cope with climatic shocks. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to analyze impact of World Vision Zimbabwe (WVZ) and other actors' interventions on farmer resilience to climatic shocks. Results show that mixed cropping and diversification in general were among the major strategies that pastoralists and crop farmers used to cope with climatic shocks. Crop farmers diversified types of crops as well as raising livestock. Similarly, pastoralists started growing short-term crops. Other coping strategies included intercropping, selling livestock, moving livestock to other places that did not experience drought. Both crop producers and livestock keepers engaged in nonfarm activities. About 60% of WVZ households reported that World Vision and partners helped them respond to shock and build resilience against climate change. These coping strategies had favorable impacts on household welfare. Diversification increased dietary diversity index by more than two and the increase was much greater among female-headed households than male-headed households. The WVZ intervention also significantly reduced the odds of going to bed without eating food or sleeping hungry. Non-farm income and value of assets for WVZ beneficiaries increased by about 20% and by 22% among treated female-headed households. The results show that diversification and providing grass root training of smallholder farmers increases their resilience to climate shocks.

Elderly women and COVID-19 vaccination in the indigenous religio-culture of the Ndau of south-eastern Zimbabwe

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is steadily becoming a tameable, mild communicable disease globally. In the Western countries and some countries in Asia, such as China, for example, this milestone is owed to a high response to vaccination programmes. The same cannot be said of Africa, where the uptake of vaccines has not been encouraging. In Zimbabwe, for example, the government had intended to vaccinate at least 10 million of its estimated 16 million population in order to reach herd immunity. The figures are still very small, indicating vaccine hesitancy. In this article, it is contended that vaccination campaigns must be adapted to local religious culture and engage critically with the elderly women in particular. Indigenous religio-cultural beliefs and practices can either mobilise or immobilise individuals and communities in implementing the COVID-19 containment measures, depending on how they are approached. To this end, any response to the pandemic should never be exclusively unidirectional. This article employs cultural hermeneutics as its lens of analysis. It does not only seek to promote life-giving values associated with elderly women in African religio-cultures but also to interrogate negative practices driven by religio-culture that put their lives at risk in the era of COVID-19. Elderly women are at worst vulnerable to the disease, and at best they are the hub of communities’ health services. Packaging the vaccination campaigns in the religio-cultural and spiritual consciousness of a people has a potential to increase vaccine uptake in line with the spirit of Goal 3 of the United Nations Agenda 2030. This article is both theoretical and empirical. It uses the Ndau of south-eastern Zimbabwe to ascertain the meaning that they create about the elderly women’s interaction with the public health call for vaccination in the context of their religio-culture. The term ‘religio-culture’ has been used because throughout Africa, religion and culture are inseparably tied together. Data are generated through interviews with key informants.Contributions: Elderly women are vulnerable to COVID-19. Despite their vulnerability, Ndau elderly women find themselves compelled by their religio-culture to respond to the crisis in their communities. There is no literature that addresses the paradox and its attendant opportunities and challenges that characterise the circumstances of elderly women in the context of COVID-19 in the efforts to motivate vaccine uptake. The article shows that indigenous religio-cultural beliefs and practices can either mobilise or immobilise individuals and communities in taking the COVID-19 vaccines, depending on how they are approached.

Impact of resilience building interventions in semiarid rural agro-communities: lessons from Mberengwa And Zvishavane Districts in South Eastern Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT The research sought to examine the impact of resilience building interventions toward rural livelihoods in Mberengwa and Zvishavane Districts. In this research, a mixed method research design was adopted to enhance the quality, complementarity, and expansion of results. Data were gathered using questionnaires, interviews and field observations. Questionnaires were distributed to 200 household heads in Mberengwa and 120 households selected in Zvishavane Districts using convenience sampling technique. Key informants interviewed included Lutheran Development Services representative, Rural District Council representative, District Crop and Livestock Officer (DCLO). The acquired qualitative data were subjected to content analysis while quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. The study findings show that Villages Savings and Lending, water harvesting, community horticultural gardens, apiculture, climate smart agriculture were some of the initiatives contributing to resilience building. These resilience building interventions contributed toward the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals 1; ending hunger, 2; zero hunger; and 13 climate action. The study recommends that the government, through the relevant ministry should ensure resilience building initiatives are included in their five-year plan, so that they have adequate and realistic implementation time frames.

Vegetation Phenology Patterns in Semi-Arid Savannah Woodlands of Gonarezhou National Park, South Eastern Zimbabwe

Vegetation Phenology Patterns in Semi-Arid Savannah Woodlands of Gonarezhou National Park, South Eastern Zimbabwe

Making and unmaking bonds: Humanitarianism, local politics and peace building in Southeastern Zimbabwe, 1988 to 1992

For a long time, perspectives of governments, civil societies and humanitarian organisations have overshadowed the voices of host communities during humanitarian emergencies. In a few instances where literature mentions host communities, they are often portrayed as homogenous groups that share similar views and attitudes towards those in need of assistance. In this article, I draw from host-refugee interactions to argue for the incorporation of local voices in civil society and humanitarianism studies and to illustrate the need to disaggregate host communities and pay attention to local politics during interventions. The influx of thousands of migrants from different countries and ethnic groups, changes the environment of the host community positively and negatively. Often, initial benevolence gives way to hostility as resource scarcities and insecurities arise. When this happens, it creates an environment of suspicion, blame, and stigma, which negatively impacts relations and cohesion between the two groups. Paying attention to local residents’ diverse perspectives during humanitarian emergencies may contribute to conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

The Armyworm and Africa: Technical Training for Smallholder Farmers

The heart of Marvellous Munyire sank as she looked across her small plot of land and saw the destruction to her maize crop. Every plant had leaves that were shredded, and some plants were dead. She and her family had cut thorn limbs and constructed a two-meter-high fence around the plot to deter damage from elephants, but the thorns were ineffective in stopping the devastation caused by this new pest—the fall armyworm. Maize is a staple food for Marvellous and other smallholder farmers in the Savé Valley of southeastern Zimbabwe, and she now knew that her family would be at risk from food shortage for the coming year because of the crop damage. The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), is a native insect of North and South America, and in 2016, it was first documented in western Africa in Nigeria. It quickly spread from there like a nightmarish...

Gendered small-scale crops and power dynamics: A case of uninga (sesame) production amongst the Ndau of south-eastern Zimbabwe

Women in Ndau communities, like in many African communities, are the fulcrum of household economies that ensure improved livelihoods of their communities. Thus, they are an indispensable factor in the sustainable development equation of their communities. It is sadly true that women do not own land in most African societies. Consequently, most studies analyse the realities of gender inequality in the distribution of resources that include land. However, very few studies recognise, appreciate and amplify the role of women in reproducing and transforming the society through their participation in agricultural activities even on pieces of land that they do not call their own. In this article we examined the power and influence that women derive from their agricultural activities, especially their association with the cultivation of crops that have often been labelled as feminine. We sought to recognise the agency of women not only in transforming livelihoods, but also gender inequalities in terms of control and influence on the use, valorisation and sale of agricultural produce. We examined the phenomenon of the crops associated with female gender from a new perspective that compels a rereading of the narratives that often dwarf women’s agricultural activities and crops associated with them. This article focussed on the production of uninga [sesame] amongst the Ndau of Musikavanthu and Chipinge South Constituencies covering areas that include Rimbi, Manzvire, Mwanyisa, Rimai, Rukangare and Garahwa in south-eastern Zimbabwe. The article’s overall theoretical framework is the African women theology that emphasises on African women as agents, not subordinated and passive subjects of history. The study is qualitative, and it used interviews, focus group discussions and observations as instruments for gathering data.Contribution: The study amplified the transformative role of women in society through their participation in agricultural activities. The findings acknowledged the complementarity of women and men in uninga production in a religio-cultural setting that has often shown biases towards patriarchy. The results are in sync with the reconstructive and liberative motif of the African women theology, which envisage a transformed African society that celebrates gender inclusivity through facilitation of dialogue between the two genders.

Vegetation phenology dynamics as an indicator of energy and productivity functions in semi-arid savannah protected areas: a case study of Gonarezhou National Park in south-eastern Zimbabwe

Spatial and temporal patterns of vegetation productivity in semi-arid savanna national parks are influenced by differences in land cover and changes in time series trends. The main purpose of this paper is to analyse patterns of vegetation productivity metrics of base value, peak value, amplitude, and small and large integrals in Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) in south-eastern Zimbabwe from 1981 to 2015. Three sample sites comprising shrublands, deciduous broadleaved forested woodlands and mixed cover (shrublands, broadleaved deciduous forested woodlands and grasslands) were selected to show existing patterns of vegetation productivity for GNP. We used remotely sensed Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data which was further processed in the TIMESAT 3.3 program to derive productivity metrics. We then tested differences in land cover using analysis of variance and changes in time-series trends using Mann–Kendall and Theil–Sen’s tests. We note significant differences in land cover (P < 0.01) in selected samples. There are significant downward trends in the base value in shrublands (P < 0.01) and broadleaved deciduous forested woodlands (P = 0.04). Significant upward trends in the amplitude in the shrublands (P < 0.01) and mixed cover areas (P = 0.01) were noted. However, there are no changes in vegetation productivity, as indicated by the peak value and large and small integral indices. Shrublands are becoming vulnerable in terms of energy and vegetation productivity and need constant monitoring. Long-span coarse-resolution images are important stepping stones in providing a baseline for further studies from moderate and fine-resolution imagery. Research on vegetation productivity using fine-resolution imagery is more suitable for GNP.