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Title Characterization of maize producing households in Masvingo and Bikita Districts in Zimbabwe
 
Names Chikobvu, S.
Chiputwa, B.
Langyintuo, A.S.
La Rovere, R.
Mwangi, W.M.
Date Issued 2010 (iso8601)
Abstract Maize is Zimbabwe’s staple crop with approximately 2.1 million metric tons (t) required for the nation to be food secure. Unfavorable macroeconomic conditions and recurrent droughts have made it difficult for Zimbabwe to meet this target, compelling the government to import maize from neighboring countries. Maize production in Zimbabwe is predominantly in the high rainfall areas, although the crop is also grown in the dry areas prone to droughts. Farmers in such environments are often at the mercy of insufficient rainfall, resulting in poor harvest and consequential hunger in the aftermath of drought. These farmers subsequently liquidate their assets to meet household food requirements and as a result sometimes fail to fully utilize the land available for cultivation. There is thus an urgent need for the promotion of drought tolerant maize in Zimbabwe, which would be aided by a better understanding of the country’s maize producing households in drought prone areas. This study aims to improve such understanding. This study and the resulting report are part of the DTMA project; it was conducted in the Masvingo and Bikita districts in Masvingo Province located in Zimbabwe’s medium drought risk zone. While complementing an earlier community assessment in the same area (Chikobvu et al. 2008), the study characterizes maize producing households and assesses the adoption of improved maize varieties among households. The data collected in the study also serve as a baseline on farm households for the construction of indicators that could subsequently be used to measure the impact of the adoption of improved maize varieties. This report is organized into six main sections. After this introduction, the next section presents the sampling and data collection procedures, followed by a brief agro-ecological characterization of the survey locations. In section three, the characterization of households in the study districts is presented. Farm household livelihoods strategies are discussed in section four, including those related to crop and livestock production, off-farm/non-farm income generating activities, income and expenditure profiles, and shock impacts on household livelihood outcomes. Section five covers farmer technology use in crop production, particularly maize varietal use, and discusses the econometric model that analyzed the factors influencing the proportion of land allocated to improved maize varieties. Finally, section six presents concluding remarks of the study.
Genre Report
Access Condition Open Access
Identifier http://hdl.handle.net/10883/1094