Home > Archive > Volume 61, No. 2 > This paper
Climate Change and Variability Discourse among Community Members and Smallholder Farmers in Mutoko District, Zimbabwe
Shingirai S. Mugambiwa and Joseph Rudigi Rukema
Published: 2020/12/01
Abstract
This paper interrogates perceptions of climate change and variability among community members and smallholder farmers in Mutoka district, Zimbabwe. The study employed a cross-sectional and exploratory research design. Criterion purposive sampling was employed to select research participants from the villages in the district and data was analyzed through thematic content analysis. The focus is on the understanding of climate change, the challenges that smallholder farmers and the community in general are facing due to climate change, indicators of climate change, cultural activities that are affected by climate change, and methods used to ensure better harvests. The study found that there are numerous challenges that smallholder farmers are facing. Knowledge of climate change and understanding of the resulting challenges is considered to be fundamental in the crafting of adaptive capacity because one cannot adapt to something one does not know about. Strategies for adaptation to climate change are sorely needed because livelihoods in the area are dependent on agriculture. We also investigated awareness of the indicators of changing weather conditions because traditional weather forecasting helps to predict imminent changes in weather conditions to which farmers would act accordingly in their agricultural activities.
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