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Baseline and Situation Analysis Report: Integrating Crop and Livestock Production for Improved Food Security and Livelihoods in Rural Zimbabwe, Socioeconomics Discussion Series Paper Series 29

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Title Baseline and Situation Analysis Report: Integrating Crop and Livestock Production for Improved Food Security and Livelihoods in Rural Zimbabwe, Socioeconomics Discussion Series Paper Series 29
 
Creator Dube, T
Homann-Kee Tui, S
Van Rooyen, A F
Rodriguez, D
 
Subject Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
 
Description Farmers in Zimbabwe face many challenges, including low soil fertility, low and erratic
rainfall, and poor market access. They are therefore often poor and vulnerable to risks and
shocks. With increasing human populations and a dwindling natural resource base, farming
systems are under greater pressure to provide sufficient food and sustain farmers’
livelihoods. There is a dire need to intensify farming systems on a sustainable basis.
Previous efforts have been focusing on improving either crop or livestock production, often
ignoring the potential synergies mixed systems offer. We believe that substantial gains can
be made by better integrating crop and livestock systems, using the resources more
effectively and following a more market-oriented approach. This report describes the
baseline situation of crop-livestock systems in semi-arid Zimbabwe. It informs the ZimCLIFS
project, which has the goal to improve rural food security and livelihoods through promoting
sustainable intensification of integrated crop-livestock systems and market participation. The
report focuses on communities in Nkayi and Gwanda Districts, situated in agro-ecological
zones IV and V in southwestern Zimbabwe. In each district participatory community visioning
was held to identify development pathways that the communities seek to pursue. About 300
households were interviewed to compile data informing a comprehensive farming systems
analysis. Descriptive statistics characterize the households, including a disaggregated
gender analysis. Through factor and cluster analysis, farm households were grouped into
most common-farm types based on resource endowments, agricultural production levels and
market markets. Communities in both districts saw their future in market-oriented agriculture.
The levels of both crop and livestock production were however very low at both districts.
Maize, the predominant crop, yielded less than 400 kg per ha, during a year of relatively low
rainfall. Yields of sorghum and groundnuts were even less. Farmers relied mainly on using
resources within their systems. Almost all households used animal draft power to plow crop
fields, more than half the households fed crop residues to their animals and a third used
animal manure as organic fertilizer. The use of external inputs was more limited. Fewer than
20% of households applied fertilizers. In Gwanda about a third of the livestock keepers fed
commercial stock-feeds to their animals. As a result of low production, crop sales and
livestock off-take rates were also low (
 
Publisher ICRISAT
 
Date 2014
 
Type Socioeconomics Discussion Paper Series
NonPeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/8410/1/T_Dube_et%20al%202014_ISEDPS_29.pdf
Dube, T and Homann-Kee Tui, S and Van Rooyen, A F and Rodriguez, D (2014) Baseline and Situation Analysis Report: Integrating Crop and Livestock Production for Improved Food Security and Livelihoods in Rural Zimbabwe, Socioeconomics Discussion Series Paper Series 29. [Socioeconomics Discussion Paper Series]