This report contributes to Output 2.1. Baseline – current conditions of agricultural systems of smallholder farmers in the identified Agroecological Living Landscape (ALL) and provides context to their current state. Therefore, the document is a Context Assessment report that is developed and…
The Zimbabwean economy depends on agriculture, which is at a crossroads with the environment, particularly under conventional agriculture practices. Transitioning to agroecology approaches has been identified as a means to transform food systems and address the challenges of climate change,…
Zimbabwe’s agri-food systems face a range of challenges. While upwards of 70% of Zimbabwe’s population works in agriculture, the sector generates only 17% of GDP (FAO, 2023). Livestock production contributes an additional 35% of GDP and is equally common, with 60% of the population owning…
We conducted a preliminary value chain actors mapping for major crops grown and livestock kept by smallholder farmers in Mbire and Murehwa districts of Zimbabwe. Accordingly, in this report we mapped value chain actors for 11 crops and livestock commodities: namely, sorghum, cotton, sesame,…
The Ukama Ustawi Initiative WP5 (Empower & Engage) facilitated a GenderUp workshop in collaboration with Wageningen University and UC Davis in Harare, Zimbabwe at the Monomotapa Hotel on August 8, 2023. The workshop was a follow-up to the WP1 innovation scaling readiness workshop on…
The frequency of El Niño occurrences in southern Africa surpasses the norm, resulting in erratic weather patterns that significantly impact food security, particularly in Zimbabwe. The effects of these weather patterns posit that El Niño occurrences have contributed to the diminished maize…
An adaptive collaborative management (ACM) project was implemented in Mafungautsi State Forest, in the Gokwe South District of Zimbabwe between 1999 and 2006. By 2005, significant collaborative momentum between local resource users and officialdom at various levels had been created. Over the…
This report presents the business plan designs and cost-benefit analyses for selected companies cooperating with the ‘transformational agroecology across food, land, and water systems’ programme, also known as the Agroecological Initiative (AE-I).In Mbire district, the sorghum value chain…
Work Package Three (WP3) of the Agroecology Initiative (AE-I) aims to enhance the integration of agroecology principles in businesses as a way to facilitate the transition of agrifood systems towards agroecology. To achieve this, WP3 aims to collaborate with selected private sector companies to…
The main objective of this action was to co-identify technological and institutional innovations that can be implemented within the agroecology living landscapes (ALLs) to facilitate the agroecological transition with specific reference to pre-selected value chains. The action also aimed to co-…
The smallholder mechanization starter pack is an innovation pioneered and developed by CIMMYT’s mechanization team in Zimbabwe. This tool was born out of necessity to alleviate farm power shortage faced by smallholder farmers and farming communities, offering a low-cost mechanization option…
This paper examines the effect of the land reform program on the production of main agricultural crops, which are maize and soyabean, in a bid to deduce the implications of the possible restoration of land acquired for resettlement in Zimbabwe. The interest of this paper is in response to the…