Climate-smart for the future: How smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe are reaping bumper crops by adapting to a changing climate

Recognizing climate change as a serious threat to social and economic development, Zimbabwe has been prioritizing adaptation in recent years.

 

In 2020, the government launched a US$47 million 7-year project with the support of the Green Climate Fund and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), aimed at strengthening the climate resilience of vulnerable communities in southern Zimbabwe, with a special focus on women.

 

Led by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, the project targets more than 2.3 million people in the provinces of Manicaland, Masvingo, and Matabeleland South. The goals: to enhance farmers' access to water; to increase access to climate-resilient inputs and practices, and markets to sell their produce; and to improve access to weather, climate, and hydrological information.

 

Utlimately, the project marks a shift away from short-term, sector-focused, production-oriented responses to climate change, towards a more holistic, systemic approach in which vulnerable farmers are empowered to manage risk.