Exploring Climate Change Impacts on Smallholder Farmers in Mhondoro-Ngezi District, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Africa is among the global continents that are more vulnerable to the detrimental effects of climate change. Numerous stakeholders in Africa are negatively impacted by climate change, and among them are small scale farmers whose livelihoods depend on subsistence farming. Primary and secondary data sources were used to examine farmers’ perceptions on local climate change adaptation measures. The study examined how farmers perceive climate change adaptation measures in their region. The researchers worked with communities to identify and prioritize strategic and appropriate measures to enhance agricultural production and improve livelihoods. The perceptions and adaptations were then scrutinized using the Heckman probit model and multivariate biprobit model (MVBP). The findings show that using chemicals fertilizers’, manure and pesticides and mixing farming and non-farming activities had positive values and are the most perceived and preferred adaptation measures. Improving the farmers adaptation measures will be necessary to improve their adaptive capacity at the household level. The study recommends that government and Non-governmental organizations must enhance farmers’ access to improved drought-tolerant seeds such as sorghum (mhunga) and millet (zviyo). Seed houses should develop seed varieties that are drought tolerant and also varieties that are weed competitive and tolerant of Africa’s significant pests and soil toxicity.