Coping with drought: Reflection of communal cattle farmers in Umzingwane district in Zimbabwe

Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Coping with drought: Reflection of communal cattle farmers in Umzingwane district in Zimbabwe
 
Creator Ndlovu, Thabo
 
Subject disaster management capitals; coping; drought; resilience; vulnerability
Description The frequency of drought presents huge challenges to rural farming communities in rural Africa. To circumvent negatives of drought, rural Zimbabwean farmers have devised coping strategies some of which are detrimental to the cattle enterprise. Using the sustainable livelihoods framework, this article sought to examine prevalent coping strategies in Umzingwane district in Zimbabwe, some of which lay a foundation for building resilience drought. Qualitative approaches underpinned by descriptive survey design guided data collection processes with structured and non-structured questionnaires administered to unravel drought coping behaviours of rural farmers. The findings reflect that farmers largely rely on moisture-sensitive coping strategies, an indication that rural farmers have not embraced contemporary cattle management practices. The coping strategies reflect a poorly engaged farming community which has been relegated to mere spectators in the industry, despite owning a significant fraction of the national herd. Communal farmers are encouraged to embrace savings clubs, insurance and fodder banks concepts to complement natural grazing and decisively deal with drought by spreading the risks and investing in proactive processes.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor University of the Free state, Umzingwani Rural District Council
Date 2019-10-15
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Descriptive Survey
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/jamba.v11i1.813
 
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/813/1570 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/813/1569 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/813/1571 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/813/1568
 
Coverage — — 42; male; Ndebele
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Thabo Ndlovu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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