Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / "Fall 2009." Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on October 30, 2009). A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Department of Political Science, University of Alberta. Includes bibliographical references.

Current development thinking revolves around sustainable development, which must be achieved at every level of society in order to attain sustainable livelihoods. One way of fulfilling this, is by ensuring that human beings are put at the centre of the development process, that is, development should be woven around people and not people around development. In other words development should be participatory and people should have the opportunity to invest in the development of their capabilities in various facets of their life. This notion was applied to the Sanale community of Insiza District of Zimbabwe. The community in question mobilized itself around projects as a way of tackling mounting environmental and food security problems. The thrust of this thesis therefore is to establish how community participation enhances environmental management and how it can also lead to improvement of food security of the community in question. The study adopted a qualitative research paradigm which entails the non-numerical examination of phenomena focusing on the underlying meanings and patterns of relationships. This is because the study utilized a case study method as a way of gaining an in-depth understanding of the community. Hence, in order to obtain information on the activities of the community in as far as conservation and livelihood issues are concerned fieldwork was undertaken and interviews conducted with household respondents and key informants. A focus group discussion was also conducted with community members involved in programme activities. Review of documents and literature such as journals, occasional papers, proposals , brochures, organizational reports and internet search was conducted in order to obtain information from secondary sources and gain insights from the literature on the subject matter. Also the observation method was used to cross check claims made by both community and key informants with regard conservation and livelihood endeavors by the community. Research findings indicate that the Sanale community managed to pull itself out of a precarious position characterized by environmental degradation and constant food deficits. This was achieved through self-mobilisation and participation in project activities. Such initiatives impacted positively on the lives of poor Sanale villagers including women. It also emerged that projects in Sanale have led to full realization of human capabilities as the community in question presides over their own decisions, have cultivated the right attitude to plan and work resulting in natural resources conservation and fulfillment of livelihood needs. In short, participation of the community in their own development has been a key factor in the success of their projects. Such success can be measured in terms of the improvement of the situation of the community after the inception of projects as compared to before project inception. This was also made possible by stakeholders such as NGOs, Government departments, CBOs and local leaders who played a facilitator role. The study concluded that interactive participation and self-mobilisation of communities is a necessary ingredient for resource conservation and improvement of household food security. However, it emerged in the study that there is need to strengthen institutional structures, national or local, to allow full integration of environmental and developmental issues, at all levels of decision-making. Also important was the sustenance of the Sanale project beyond the life of grants such as GEFSGP and ERF. Further, fostering community participation in all stages of the project cycle is important for the project and community. Above all, the issue of sustainability should preoccupy such projects and multi-stakeholder partnerships should be encouraged if rural projects are to last into the foreseeable future. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

Urban agriculture is a common and permanent phenomenon across most African cities. The general trend in urban agriculture is that it is more pronounced among the poor urban households. Poor households often spend more than 60% of their income on food alone. It acts as coping mechanisms to urban poverty. The traditional view of urban agriculture is that it is a temporal activity which has no place in cities. These traditional views emerge from development policies which tried to tailor African countries’ economic development to follow western economic development models. The fact that urban agriculture has been prevalent in African cities before the advent of colonialism shows that instead of viewing it as temporal activity a socio-historical and socio-economic analysis of urban agriculture is necessary to understand the socio-economic mechanisms behind it. The major thrust of this research was to understand the logic behind practising farming in cities. Urban agriculture in this thesis is presented from urban farmers’ perspective. Using data collected and the literature review for this thesis I developed the Urban Livelihoods Coping Model (ULCM). This model acknowledges the fact that the socio-economic conditions and the socio-historical context of Zimbabwe was as a result of the influence of ‘western leaning’ development policies influenced by theoretical framework of modernisation and associated theories. A combination of these theories with cultural factors and the impact of Structural Adjustment Policies resulted in the present situation where urban agriculture plays a critical in the survival of the urban poor as a coping mechanism. The ULCM ascribes the emergence of urban agriculture to necessity, ability and opportunity. Necessity for food emanates from insufficient incomes to purchase food in cities. The ability comes in the form of farming skills transferred from the rural areas to urban areas as households migrate. Opportunity comes in the form of availability of land for cultivation. Increase in poverty in cities will subsequently result in an increase in urban agriculture. It is apparent that without urban agriculture in Glen Norah most of the families will find it difficult to survive. The significance of this study is that it will help in the socio-economic understanding of urban agriculture and how it can be factored into urban planning systems. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

This study investigates the impact of informal cross border trading on poverty reduction in Zimbabwe. In the context of this study, the term Informal Cross Border Trade (ICBT), is used to describe the activities of small entrepreneurs who are involved in buying and selling across national borders. The study focuses on whether the stated activities are lifting those participating out of poverty. The research problem is examined through an assessment of the income levels, assets acquirement, expenditures patterns, food security and family relations. The hypotheses tested in the research are that, “The extent of ICBT is significant in Zimbabwe; ICBT in the Southern Africa region is mainly dominated by women; and that ICBT contributes positively to poverty reduction”. In this context, poverty reduction is said to have occurred when informal cross border trading would have resulted in an improvement in the socio-economic wellbeing of traders‟ households. The Poverty Datum Line (PDL) is used as the measure of households‟ well-being. To assess the impact of ICBT on well-being, a survey was conducted whereby in-depth interviews using the questionnaire method were used to collect primary data. Secondary information was obtained from documentary searches at institutions and also using internet searches. From this study it has been found that ICBT has both positive and negative impacts with regard to social welfare. With regard to economic welfare, based on poverty indicator measures used in the study, ICBT contributes positively to Poverty Reduction. Thus the analysis revealed that informal cross border trade plays an important role in alleviating economic hardships, reducing poverty and enhancing welfare and human development in Zimbabwe.

The research sought to examine the effect of literacy on access to, and utilization of agricultural information for household food security at Chirau Communal lands in Zimbabwe. The study was influenced by the diffusion of innovations approach based on interviews, observation and document study. Selected female farmers from Chirau communal lands were respondents to the self administered interviews and focus group discussions. Representatives from, Agriculture Extension and the Ministry of Agriculture were key informants. Systematic Random sampling was used to select 100 female respondents from the age of 18 to above 80 from wards 1 to 10 of Chirau Rural District in Zimbabwe. Data was analyzed into themes and coded for statistical analysis using the SPSS. The country is faced with food insecurity and the main findings of this study support the view that women play an active role in food production but their potential is limited by inadequate levels of literacy that affect the way they access and utilize resources for sustainable agriculture and household food security among other factors. This may be generalized to the situation of female farmers in Zimbabwe. Improved literacy competencies among the female farmers in Zimbabwe lends itself as one of the interventions that may assist in improving access to information and its effective utilization.. This calls decision-makers to boost literacy for women, develop available agricultural information resources and harness effort towards making them accessible. While interventions may be multi-sectored, the role of government is stressed in this report.

A cardinal development goal of the Zimbabwean government is agricultural mechanization through the acquisition and use of tractors by arable crop farmers in communal and resettlement state land. This research project therefore aimed at investigating the impact of mechanization on agricultural productivity focusing on farmers in Bindura district of Zimbabwe who benefitted under the ongoing farm mechanization program. The existing land policy and the issue of technical efficiency in agricultural productivity are assumed to be the drivers of the program. It is likely that these key issues will constitute an important consideration in determining the sustainability of the mechanization policy. A multistage sampling technique was used to randomly select 90 farmers in the study area. The Cobb Douglas approach and Logistic regression were used to analyze data obtained from the respondents. Results revealed that tractor use was positively influenced by household size, access to extension services and crop output equivalent. Education, land area cultivated, stoniness negatively influenced the probability of adoption of mechanized farming. Furthermore, the technical efficiency estimate of adopter and nonadopters of mechanized farming showed no difference in their level of technical efficiency in agricultural productivity that was 64 percent on average. The level of observed inefficiency was increased by slope, stoniness and household size while age reduced technical inefficiency. It is recommended that government should consolidate the present gains arising from extension services. Also, environmental factors such as slope (topography) and stoniness, which constituted major disincentives in communal areas, could be overcome if government and farmers can identify and open up new areas of farmland for occupation by farmers.

Food aid and domestic food production capacities in Zimbabwe have been compromised by the poor performance in the country’s agricultural sector, which has necessitated an increase in and a continual need for humanitarian assistance over the past decade. The country’s commercial cereal food import capacity has not been an exception as it has also been greatly affected by the poor performance of the agricultural sector and the shortage of foreign currency that hit the country in the past few years. Secondary data on food aid, commercial cereal imports and cereal food production was obtained from World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) of Zimbabwe and from Zimbabwe Statistics (ZimSTATS) databases. This time series data was then analysed in the Vector Autoregression (VAR) analysis. Trends observed in the time series data reveal that commercial cereal food imports and cereal food aid inflows to Zimbabwe had been increasing between 1988 and 2008. Domestic cereal food production levels however were observed to have been declining within the same period. The restricted VAR model which was specified to investigate the short and long term effects of food aid on food production and on commercial food imports in the country revealed a low statistically significant positive relationship between domestic food production and food aid volumes. Results from the model also indicated a negative relationship between commercial food imports and food aid volumes. This means that as food aid volumes to Zimbabwe increase, the volume of commercial cereal food imported into Zimbabwe falls. This result therefore suggests that food aid in the country had a displacement effect on commercial cereal food imports in the short term. The results of the Granger causality test and the estimation of the Impulse Response Functions also helped to confirm and reinforce these findings from the vector error correction model. The conclusions drawn from the study were that the responsiveness of domestic food supply, that is, cereal production, to food aid inflows in the short term has been elastic. That is to say, an increase in food aid inflows would influence an increase in the level of domestic food production in the short term. However, in the long term, findings confirm that food aid does indeed discourage domestic food production in the country. Also, for the relationship between food aid and commercial food imports, it can be concluded from the study findings that food aid in the short term has caused a reduction in commercial food imports whereas in the long term, food aid inflows have actually stimulated the commercial food import capacity. In recommendation, the Government of Zimbabwe, the private and public institutions as well as the Non-Governmental Organisations should partner and work together in defining the criteria for vulnerability assessment, food aid targeting and distribution, and in the implementation of strategies for ensuring national food availability. Such partnerships would help in ensuring the sustainability of food aid and food security in Zimbabwe, which is the main goal.

MSCAEC / Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness

Successive droughts, in Zimbabwe compounded by other economic shocks in recent years have resulted in decreased maize productivity amongst the communal farmers most of whom reside in regions IV and V which are considered semi-arid. This has given rise to the need to find alternative food crops, which may be suitable for these areas. Generally, research in the world indicates that sorghum and millet have the potential to end chronic food insecurity in semi-arid areas because of their drought tolerance. Whilst this might be the case, research, government policy and assistance from non-governmental organizations on food crop production in Zimbabwe have shown a continual inclination to maize production in semi-arid areas. However, maize is regarded as a high risk crop in these regions. The main objective of the study was to investigate major factors affecting smallholder farmers in semi-arid areas, from increased production of small grains, specifically sorghum and finger millet. The study was conducted in two rural districts of Masvingo and Gutu, which lie in natural region IV in Masvingo Province. The questionnaire was used as the main tool of inquiry to gather data from households in selected villages within these districts. Questionnaires were administered through face-to-face interviews. The total sample size was 120. The logistic regression model was used to analyze data. The results revealed that, at the 5% level, labour, cattle ownership, farm size, age, extension, yields and access to credit significantly influence sorghum and finger millet production. These findings suggest that an adjustment in each one of the significant variables can significantly influence the probability of participation in small grain production. In view of these research findings, a policy shift that encourages increased production of finger millet and sorghum in Zimbabwe‟s semi-arid regions is proposed. It is suggested that this may increase household food security in these regions.

MRDV / Institute for Rural Development / In most poverty-stricken countries, edible indigenous plants (EIPs) have been an ever-present component of the household food and nutrition security equation since time immemorial. The place of these plants in the household food and nutrition debate and matrix is unclear. Yet, their existence lessens the impact of food and nutrition insecurity on household livelihoods. A study that was premised on the view that the types of EIPs within their local context is important although cultural domains limit the extent of their utilisation was conducted in Muchesu Ward of Binga District in north-western Zimbabwe. The study was born out of the realisation that there was inadequate scientifically generated information on how communities benefit from the EIPs. Of interest was how prevailing global environmental and economic changes influenced household food and nutrition security. Furthermore, it was evident that new approaches were needed to help build an understanding of where EIPs fitted within the food and nutrition security debate and matrix. The main objective of the current study was to characterise EIPs and examine their role in combating food and nutrition insecurity. Exploratory and phenomenological designs were used during characterising EIPs. Respondents were purposively sampled. Data were collected through participatory mapping, transect walks, focus group discussions, seasonal diagramming, key informant interviews and observation. Scoring, matrix ranking, and thematic content analysis were used to analyse the data. Inventories revealed that EIPs were available, accessible and utilised in various ways. Identified EIPs were classified according to the parts that were eaten namely: leafy vegetables, fruits, and tubers. Forty-seven leafy vegetables, 36 fruits and 26 tubers regarded as EIPs were identified. Seasonal availability of EIPs varied across the months of the year. Use of leafy vegetables peaked during the rainy season. Fruits were available in most months of the year although a considerable number of types was available and harvested during the rainy season. Tubers were also available in varied months of the year. Timing was crucial for harvesting tubers. The preparation of 20 EIPs and their uses were documented considering their medicinal properties and other uses. It was noted that some plants were edible and had medicinal value. Considering the observations made in the study, the following conclusions and recommendations were proposed: (1) Conservation and improved ways of harvesting EIPs so as to enhance their sustainability; (2) Produce seasonal calendars to help assess when a certain community is likely to be food insecure; and (3) Conduct further research focusing on the nutritional content of identified plants, which would enable better decision making with respect to household and community nutrition security. / NRF