Adoption of Conservation Agriculture as a Disaster Risk Reduction Tool in Chivi District, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Drought tops the list of disasters affecting southern Africa. In Zimbabwe droughts recur, leaving approximately three million people food insecure. Hence the adoption of sustainable adaptation strategies to drought becomes imperative. Conservation Agriculture (CA), has been successfully adopted in southern Africa to avert drought shocks among other agricultural challenges. Despite the success of CA in some regions, its effectiveness in semi-arid parts of Zimbabwe has been widely contested. However the effectiveness of a new technology, in the face of disasters depends on its adoption, reflecting its strength and usefulness. This chapter seeks to evaluate the adoption of CA in the semi-arid Chivi District of Zimbabwe and unpack factors affecting CA adoption to provide baseline data to policy makers in Zimbabwe and other similar environments. The chapter is based on data elicited from a survey held across Chivi District in Zimbabwe.