This Report presents the results of the 2011-2012 Agriculture and Livestock Survey (ALS) in Old Resettlement Schemes conducted by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency.

Poverty in rural Zimbabwe was rampant during colonial and post-independence times. Poverty creation by colonial authorities through legislation that deprived the indigenous people of their fatherland was meant to create labour for the ruling whites while making sure the indigenous Zimbabweans would never aspire to be equal to their colonizers....

Increasing awareness of risks associated with climate change and variability among smallholder farmers is critical in building their capacity to develop the necessary adaptive measures. Using farmer participatory research approaches and formal questionnaire surveys, interaction has been made with >800 farmers in two distinct smallholder farming systems of Makoni and...

In Zimbabwe, contract farming for seed production has traditionally been the domain of commercial farmers due to the high levels of care necessary in production and perceived high risks associated with contracting small holder farmers. With limited supply and market options, medium-sized seed company Agriseeds sought to use smallholder farmers...

Farmers in semi-arid Zimbabwe prioritize climate variability as their major agricultural productivity-reducing problem. This paper raises the importance of considering local farmers’ perceptions on climate risk, as this greatly influences on-farm investments and decision-making in agricultural management and production in semiarid Zimbabwe. A study was conducted in two districts of...

Improving livelihoods in rural areas is important to progress of the developing world and it helps in the creation of the domestic demand for the productive sector. Private sector partnerships in rural areas have been the major driver to reduction of market uncertainties and management of risk and thus bring...

An evaluation of smallholder draught animal power systems was conducted in six study areas in Masvingo and Chivi districts of Masvingo province over two seasons 1999-2000 and 2000-2002. The objective was to investigate the effect of renovating animal-drawn ploughs and cultivators on field performance and on maize and cotton yields...

This study is based on fieldwork conducted in Ward 5 Guruve District of Mashonaland Central, Zimbabwe. Conservation farming (CF) has been widely embraced as an antidote to the perennial food insecurity situation, bedeviling drought prone regions in Zimbabwe, such as Guruve district and in Africa at large. Despite widespread promotion...

A study was conducted to assess the potential of establishing small-scale dairy processing schemes that would bring development and economic growth, alleviate poverty and enhance the standards of life of the Namibian livestock rearing population. Lessons were deducted from the Zimbabwe Smallholder Dairy Development Program (DDP). Secondary data was collected...

Indigenous knowledge systems of livestock care and health care is the only asset in the hands of the small holder farmers to mitigate the impact of climate change on livestock production. This study explores the role of indigenous knowledge systems of livestock care and veterinary care in the face of...

 Increasingly, unpredictable weather poses challenges to livelihoods as it requires greater investment of time, energy, and resources in order to maintain crops and animals through dry spells. Vulnerability to climate variability induced hazards can be reduced successfully with an understanding of the most vulnerable to the impacts and how the...

Since October 2010, DAI has been implementing the Zimbabwe Agricultural Competitiveness Program (ZimACP), with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project is a 4.5-year initiative designed to support and facilitate the farming and agribusiness sector, through their representative bodies, to dialogue and arrive at consensus...

The Zimbabwean dairy subsector consists of a number of actors from input suppliers, milk producers, processors, transporters to service providers. The subsector was and remains dominated by production from the large-scale commercial farms and of late by imports. As a result of the land reform in 2000 and macroeconomic policies,...

Zimbabwe’s economy is starting to turn around after almost a decade of recession characterized by macroeconomic and political challenges. During this time, the near collapse of formal marketing channels, as well as shortages and high prices of key agricultural inputs (fertilizers, seeds, crops and chemicals), resulted in steep drops in...

The present edition highlights the significance of the forestry sector to the overall economy and its importance overall in the region’s land use, demonstrating its potential to make a difference in improving (or worsening) an economy’s green credentials. It is an important message about forestry and greenness.

The introduction of the Integrated Weed Management (IWM) in Zimbabwe’s small holder sector seemed to be the answer to the weed management problem in the sector. However up to the present moment the drudgery associated with weeding still dominate in the sector. Research in Zimbabwe has investigated various techniques varying...

Small-scale coffee and tea production used to contribute considerably to household income of more than 6000 smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe, including Mr. Duri up to the late 1990s. Since the year 2000 when Zimbabwe embarked on an unplanned land reform programme, the resulting economic instability brought the tea and coffee...

The laxity of young people taking up farming may be due to, but not limited, to lack of farming incentives, inadequate access to productive assets such as land and capital, inadequate infrastructure, limited well-functioning markets, high population pressure on land and inadequate access to appropriate technologies by farmers. In this...

Despite heavy investment made by various organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa, to promote conservation farming, the adoption of this technology remained low. Therefore, this study was carried out to estimate the factors determining the adoption of conservation farming by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. The study was guided by theory of adoption....

This edition of Nature & Faune magazine explores climate change implications for agricultural development and natural resources conservation in Africa. It provides a rich menu spanning many dimensions of climate change as it relates to the African rural farmer, fisher-folk and herdsman who are on the frontline of managing and...