Climate-smart agriculture: Improving dryland crop yields and value addition through university–community partnership in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Decreasing rainfall has worsened the food security situation of most smallholder farming communities in southern Africa that depend on rain-fed production systems. National agricultural production in Zimbabwe, especially from smallholder farmers, relies on rain-fed agriculture which is vulnerable to climate change and variability (Mandumbu et al., 2021). According to the Zimbabwe National Climate change response strategy of 2016, unless appropriate interventions are made, the negative impacts of climate change and variability on agricultural productivity will stress institutional structures at grassroots level. Communities living in the semiarid natural farming regions which offer very limited livelihood options, make up 64% of the land area in Zimbabwe (Brazier, 2015). The focus of this CARP was on these semi-arid zones in the Mount Darwin district in the northern part of Zimbabwe and the Buhera South district in the southeastern part of Zimbabwe. These smallholder farming communities have been ravaged by the effects of drought. Marginalised local communities with traditional practices of agriculture are the first ones to face the impacts of climate change. The survival of these communities depends on the effective adaptation of agriculture to climate change. This project was directed at climate-smart agriculture to support small-scale farmers in the semi-arid communal farming areas of Zimbabwe.