Building Community Resilience and Sustainability in Zimbabwe

Florence Talakufa at her home with one of her boer goats that enabled her to grow her herd.

In a lot of communities in Africa, it is near impossible for women to have a say in family affairs or own any property. In Zimbabwe, women are tasked with the responsibility of taking care of the children and home. As a result of extreme climate change that led to the decimation of pasture lands for cattle and farms, women in the communities started rising and taking charge.

This is worse in Region 5 which experiences an annual rainfall of 450mm or less, severe mid-season dry spells, and frequent seasonal droughts.

 Florence Talakufa was one of the first female farmers to join the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund- Enhancing Community Resilience and Sustainability (ECRAS) project (ZRBF-ECRAS) in her village in 2017. During this time, many people in the community were bearing the brunt of intermittent dry weather conditions, that affected all matters related to farming.   

“Our area is very hot which makes it difficult to farm. We were farming local traditional grains which would take time to mature and yet still produce very low yields. At the same time, our livestock continued dying we did not have enough pastures. We were forced to sell them off cheaply to buyers for us to survive so I had 6 goats and five cows, and I had no chickens,” said Florence.

“Zimbabwe is exposed to multiple weather-related hazards such as frequent periodic cyclones, droughts, and flash floods. Drought is the most common in areas like Chiredzi and Mwenezi where CARE is working in Zimbabwe. Resilience building and diversified farming become critical to building food and income security for communities in these disaster-prone areas. Many project participants like Florence are on a resilience trajectory and can at least withstand shocks such as drought, “said Fungai Gutusa, ECRAS project leader.

Florence Talakufa at her home feeding her flock of chicken.

 

 

As a result, the community was forced to rely on earning an income from toiling on other people's farms as well as handouts from donors. However, all of this was not enough.

Through ZRBF-ECRAS, the community was able to get training through an integrated approach where a model household was expected to participate in two or more activities. This was to enable them to build their income and as such strengthen their capacities to withstand the impact of climate change. These included resilient climate-smart crop and livestock production, rain-water harvesting technologies, and fish farming to post-harvest management. Also, the concept of asset-based Village Savings and Lending (VSAL) was introduced to empower the community to become self-sufficient.  

Florence’s household received high-yielding seed varieties like sorghum (Macia), pearl millet (Okashana), velvet beans, cowpeas, peanuts, and Noah 45 beans. A Boer goat was also extended to the community through Florence’s household to improve the breeds in the community. 

“The goat brought a big change. We were selling these at around R300 ($18) but after we received the Boer buck, our breeds fetch between R500 ($30) to R800 ($47). Our herd also increased from six to 36 goats. We are now able to slaughter goats for our consumption and at the same time be able to sell locally and use the money to pay for our children’s school fees as well as purchase foodstuffs.  “Through this project, we have been able to transform our lives for the better,” said Florence

Florence also diversified her livestock rearing and ventured into sheep farming and currently has 11. The project supported her with an improved chicken breed and has since grown her flock to 95 birds.