Climate change and vulnerability to food insecurity among smallholder farmers : a case study of Gweru and Lupane districts in Zimbabwe

[摘要] This thesis assesses the vulnerability of smallholder farmers to food insecurity in Gweru andLupane districts of Zimbabwe and links this to climate change. Current changes in climate formost parts of Zimbabwe have resulted in increased frequency of droughts, dry spells anderratic rainfall. This has resulted in loss of food production and smallholder farmers are mostvulnerable to these climatic catastrophes as they affect the food security status of thehousehold. Few studies have been done at local and household levels, most climatic studieshave been done at global and national levels. This study seeks to contribute to this knowledgegap.Poverty and food security studies have proved that poor and food insecure households aremore vulnerable to climate change, considering that they have limited options to curb againstclimate change. Using data obtained from a survey carried out in Gweru and Lupane districtsin Zimbabwe, descriptive statistics analysis was undertaken to characterize the households, interms of gender, education of the household head, cropping patterns of the household,perceptions to climate change and also organizations working within the communities andhow they help reduce vulnerability to climate change. Results show that cereal cropproduction is common and important in these two districts, considering that the largest piecesof land are allocated to cereals. Thus cereals constitute a large proportion to the household'sfood security. Chuadhuri's model of measuring vulnerability to poverty was used to measurevulnerability to food insecurity for households in Gweru and Lupane districts. Results showabout 88% of the households in both districts are vulnerable to food insecurity thus, havemore chances of being negatively impacted by climate change.

[发布机构] University of the Free State