Agricultural programs affecting food security and sustainability in Zimbabwe

Safiyya Kassim

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

The agricultural sector accounts for about 15% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Zimbabwe. Over the years, agricultural production has substantially reduced due to the negative impacts of several socio-economic, institutional, and policy-related issues, thus threatening the already critically declining food security in the country. Climate change on the other hand has had the most devastating effect(s) on the predominantly rainfed farming systems. This research is focused on the influence of the Special Maize for Import Substitution Scheme, and the Zimbabwe Livelihood and Food Security Program (LFSP) Pfumvudza on agricultural productivity. Very little is known about Pfumvudza in particular, as there is limited scientific knowledge published about the program. The overall objective is to investigate the effects of specific Government Input Support Programs (GISP) on food security and Climate Smart Agriculture practices (CSA) in Zimbabwe. 109 respondents were interview using face-to-face interviews. Further analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software 27.0. The key findings of the research showed that the majority of the farmers benefited from better agricultural knowledge; 53% of the respondents belonged to the acceptable food security category, and institutional factors such as cooperatives were associated to adoption os CSA. In addition, radio was found to be the major source of information. As a recommendation, policymakers should be recommended to promote combinations of different CSA methods and GISP focused on increasing agricultural yields, which will in turn enhance household food security.

Keywords

Climate-smart, food security, Pfumvudza, Special Maize for Input Substitution (SMPIS), sustainability

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 16. 4. 2022

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Ing. William Nkomoki, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Bachelor programme:
International Cooperation in Agricultural and Rural Development