Sustainability of food production support services offered by Sustainable Agriculture Trust to subsistence farmers in Bikita District, Zimbabwe

Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Sustainability of food production support services offered by Sustainable Agriculture Trust to subsistence farmers in Bikita District, Zimbabwe
 
Creator Chivasa, Norman
 
Subject development studies food production; food security; subsistence farming; sustainability; conventional farming
Description In developing countries, food production challenges continue to persist, despite interventions at household levels such as input provision to address farmers’ resource constraints and training in conservation farming to improve land use and management by farmers. In Bikita District of Zimbabwe, concerns over the viability of conservation farming and input support services in helping out subsistence farmers to mitigate food production challenges remain unresolved. This research, therefore, evaluated the sustainability of support services offered by the Sustainable Agriculture Trust to subsistence farmers taking Ward 13 of Bikita District as a case study. Data collection involved two qualitative methods, namely structured interviews and focus group discussions, with 32 household heads comprising 18 women and 14 men. Results showed that the capacity by subsistence farmers to continue practising conservation farming using retained maize, sorghum and cowpea seed varieties and still produce better yields even after the Sustainable Agriculture Trust’s exit justify the hypothesis that conservation farming is a sustainable food production intervention. This study therefore concludes that the proficiency by subsistence farmers in Ward 13 of Bikita District carries the implication that training household heads in conservation farming means developing more subsistence farmers capable of producing their own food even amidst unpredictable rains, heat waves and shortening rainfall seasons.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor N/a
Date 2019-05-20
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative, focus groups and interviews
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/jamba.v11i1.526
 
Source Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies; Vol 11, No 1 (2019); 9 pages 1996-1421 2072-845X
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/526/1130 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/526/1129 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/526/1131 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/526/1128
 
Coverage Southern Africa; Zimbabwe post-colonial Zimbabwe adults from 25 and above
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Norman Chivasa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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