Socioeconomic barriers in the adoption of Holistic land and Livestock Management as a way of combating land degradation for small holder farmers in Zimbabwe

BcA. Tatenda Trinity Moyo, BA

Master's thesis

Abstract:

AbstractLand degradation is the gradual or a permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land being utilized. The impact of land degradation is challenging to smallholder farmers in developing countries such as Zimbabwe due to anthropogenic, natural, and environmental factors. The complex and diverse nature in small holder farming systems has been under perceived and undervalued. This has resulted in the neglect and exclusion of small holder farming systems in modern technologies addressing land degradation issues which gives room for the study conducted, where ability to change and adopt production practices is investigated. This study sought to address the factors affecting the adoption of Holistic Land and Livestock Management practices – rotational grazing and feeding livestock on land- by smallholder farmers. For this research a total of 126 small holder farmers in Chikukwa community were interviewed using structured questionnaire. The data analysis methods used include descriptive statistics, chi square test and logistic regression. The study results showed that the farmers have problems with water erosion and low soil nutrients. The results of the logistic regressions on factors affecting adoption of adoption of feeding livestock on farmland showed that government information and internet had influences in the adoption of the practice. The results of the logistic regression on factors affecting adoption of rotational grazing revealed that gender sensitivity is important, print media and trainings on HLLM have a critical role to play in farmer productivity and adoption of Holistic land and livestock management practices.

Keywords

Land degradation, holistic management, livestock management, factors, barriers

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 15. 5. 2020

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Ing. Miroslava Bavorová, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / Sustainable Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics