Enhancing rural community resilience on food insecurity through agricultural practices in Chimanimani district, Zimbabwe · Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Author

Moyo, Sithabile T.S.

Title

Enhancing rural community resilience on food insecurity through agricultural practices in Chimanimani district, Zimbabwe

Abstract

This research examines how sustainable agricultural practices can enhance rural community resilience to food insecurity in Chimanimani District, Zimbabwe. The Chimaimani district faces significant challenges, which include climate change, poverty, and inadequate farming practices, resulting in elevated levels of food insecurity. Employing a mixed-methods research design, this study examines the effects of sustainable agricultural practices on household food security and community resilience through the analysis of current farming methods, identification of effective climate adaptation strategies, and assessment of sustainable practice impacts. Results demonstrated that sustainable agricultural practices, particularly conservation farming (93.4% adoption) and organic farming (76.8% adoption), significantly improve food security outcomes. Households practicing conservation farming showed substantially higher meal frequencies, with 49.2% consuming three meals daily compared to lower consumption rates among non-practitioners. The study identified six primary climate adaptation strategies, with conservation farming (84.4%) and crop diversification (77.7%) emerging as the most widely adopted approaches. These practices contributed to enhanced crop yields, improved household nutrition, and increased resilience to climate variability. The results also indicated that food insecurity can be reduced by making sustainable agricultural implications like conservation farming and crop diversification, which are proven by the upturn in the frequency of meals as well as general household nutrition. The research study emphasizes the value of communal involvement especially the role of women when trying to enforce successful farming interventions. It, further, highlights on the dire need of local measures that can be undertaken in countering the persisting phenomenon of climate change on agricultural production. The findings of the research are useful to policy makers and farmers to be aware of future course of action in enhancing food security and to achieve sustainable development in such type of scenario. This research study will cut across more issues on resilience and sustainable livelihoods in rural areas by working on the source of food insecurity

Date

May 2025

Publisher

BUSE

Keywords

food insecurity

Rural community resilience

Agricultural practices

Supervisor

Dr V.T. Munyati