MRDV / Institute for Rural Development / Food and nutritional insecurity, poverty and hunger are some of the 21st -century challenges baffling most developing economies. Worldwide, 1.2 billion people are estimated to be living in poverty. Since 1990, the number of people living in extreme poverty has increased by over 50 million in 2014. Among the many public and private institutions that have made several gritty efforts to address the poverty challenge is the Heifer international through its Heifer International Pass on Programme (HIPP). Under the HIPP, the Pass on the Gift programme has been implemented in Ward 1 of Mberengwa District for over two decades targeting the food and nutritional insecure, hungry and poverty-stricken people who are given a gift in form of cattle, goats, chicken etc. This was done with the belief that the gift will add value to their asset base and serve as stepping stone out of poverty, food and nutrition insecurity. Various reports have been written on how the programme helped in improving household livelihood. However, the voice of the beneficiaries was not being heard. This study explored how the Pass-on-the-Gift programme influenced the household‘s livelihoods in Ward 1, Mberengwa District of Zimbabwe. A multi-stage integrated approach was employed. Both the case study and a cross-sectional survey designs were employed. Two sequentially integrated phases were followed. On the first phase, a case study was used to gather data from the Heifer International Pass on Programme beneficiaries and other key stakeholders. During this stage, data were collected using a semistructured interview guide. Results obtained from the first phase informed formulation of the questionnaire used in the second phase. Respondents were purposefully sampled in both stages. Data obtained through semi-structured interviews were analyzed using Atlas ti 8 software while that from a survey was analyzed using IBM SPPS version 25 software to generate descriptive statistics and inferential statistics components. Results from the first phase of data collection were triangulated with those from the second phase. This synchronized the two data sets and allowed subsequent discussion of the results. The research findings revealed that the HIPP influenced all the households of the participating farmers financially, socially and economically where p= 0.000. Thus, the study confirmed that the notion that cattle ownership can be used as an avenue of confronting the multi-dimensional rural development challenges. Furthermore, it was revealed that cattle ownership empowers the rural smallholder farmers and has potential to assist households dismantle the perpetual dependency on external support, improve their livelihoods and contribute to sustainable development goals. / NRF

Rural farmers in Zimbabwe have been grappling with various changes and challenges occurring in the country since the early 1990s. Amongst these, climate variability has emerged as one significant aspect. It has introduced new challenges for these farmers who are already facing various difficulties in maintaining their insecure livelihoods. Yet, current adaptation theories and inquiries have failed to sufficiently account for and analyse the capacity of these farmers to adequately respond to changing climatic conditions. In this respect, a number of studies have been heavily embedded in deterministic concepts that regard rural farmers as passive victims who play only a minor part in decisions and actions that affect their own livelihoods and well-being. Similarly, although some studies have acknowledged farmers’ capacity to adapt and build elements of resilience, they have not adequately shown how farmers interpret changes in climate and the structures, processes and conditions underpinning adaptation. Following that, my study uses a case study of a rural community in a semi-arid region of Mutoko district in eastern Zimbabwe and Margaret Archer’s sociological theory to understand and analyse how farmers problematise climate variability and respond to it. The study utilises a qualitative approach to divulge the subtleties on how rural people interpret processes of change and adapt to such changes. The thesis found that farmers are encountering increasingly unpredictable and unreliable rainfall patterns as well as shifting temperature conditions which are inducing labyrinthian livelihoods conundrums. However, these climatic shifts are not being experienced in a discrete manner hence farmers are also discontented with the obtaining socio-economic circumstances in the country. Simultaneously, whilst farmers in large part conceived changes in rainfall and temperature to be caused by natural shifts in climate, they also ascribed them to cultural and religious facets. Importantly, the thesis reveals considerable resourcefulness by farmers in the face of nascent changes in climate variability. Farmers have therefore constructed versatile coping and adaptive strategies. What is crucial to mention here is that climatic and non-climatic challenges are negotiated concurrently. Therein, farmers are adapting to climate variability and at the same time navigating difficult socio-economic landscapes. All the same, the process of adaptation is ostensibly not straightforward but complex. As it evolves, farmers find themselves facing numerous constraining structures and processes. Nonetheless, farmers in this study are able to circumvent the constraints presented to them and at the same time activate the corresponding enabling structures, processes and conditions.

MSCAEC / Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness