Vulnerability and resilience of competing land-based livelihoods in south eastern Zimbabwe

Key words: vulnerability; resilience; livelihood; drought; Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area; south eastern Zimbabwe. Vulnerability and resilience have emerged as powerful analytical concepts in the study of socio-ecological systems. In this research these concepts are used to enhance our understanding of heterogeneous rural livelihoods in a semi-arid area on the western border of protected wildlife areas in Zimbabwe’s southeast lowveld. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a methodological approach that helps understanding the vulnerability of rural livelihoods to change and relate this to adaptive mechanisms employed by people to cope with the resulting change. Although most households in the study area keep livestock, practice arable farming, and receive remittances, they differ in terms of their dependency on cattle, cropping, and non-farm and off-farm activities, especially in years of drought. Households most dependent on livestock – the cattle-based livelihood type – generally cope with hazards by selling cattle. Households of the crop-based livelihood type strive to spread the risk of crop failure by cropping across the landscape, ranging from flood plains to uplands on the interfluves. Households of the non-farm livelihood type rely for their survival on paid employment outside the study area, mostly of households’ members working in South Africa. Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) was used to assess the vulnerability of the three livelihood types to different hazards. The vulnerability analysis shows that policies relating to the permeability and/or enforcement of protected area boundaries can strongly aggravate the effects of other external influences, such as drought or climate change. To cope with drought-induced fodder shortages, people of cattle-based households have recently started to use Neorautanenia amboensis (Schinz). This tuber shrub, locally known as Zhombwe, is now saving many cattle from death in periods of drought, thus reducing livestock keeping households vulnerability to drought. This thesis shows the anthelmintic properties of Zhombwe; its distribution in the field was quantified. Crop experiments explored adaptive strategies which can be used by the households of the crop-based livelihood type to increase food self-sufficiency. Results show that by making better use of different landscape units in the area food production can be increased, both in good and bad rainfall years. By applying a method like FCM and by analysing quantitatively different options for increasing the resilience of the local households, this thesis shows that it is key to take into account the heterogeneity of rural households in an area, as adaption options differ strongly between them. </p

Application of Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping in Livelihood Vulnerability Analysis

Feedback mechanisms are important in the analysis of vulnerability and resilience of social-ecological systems, as well as in the analysis of livelihoods, but how to evaluate systems with direct feedbacks has been a great challenge. We applied fuzzy cognitive mapping, a tool that allows analysis of both direct and indirect feedbacks and can be used to explore the vulnerabilities of livelihoods to identified hazards. We studied characteristics and drivers of rural livelihoods in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area in southern Africa to assess the vulnerability of inhabitants to the different hazards they face. The process involved four steps: (1) surveys and interviews to identify the major livelihood types; (2) description of specific livelihood types in a system format using fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs), a semi-quantitative tool that models systems based on people’s knowledge; (3) linking variables and drivers in FCMs by attaching weights; and (4) defining and applying scenarios to visualize the effects of drought and changing park boundaries on cash and household food security. FCMs successfully gave information concerning the nature (increase or decrease) and magnitude by which a livelihood system changed under different scenarios. However, they did not explain the recovery path in relation to time and pattern (e.g., how long it takes for cattle to return to desired numbers after a drought). Using FCMs revealed that issues of policy, such as changing situations at borders, can strongly aggravate effects of climate change such as drought. FCMs revealed hidden knowledge and gave insights that improved the understanding of the complexity of livelihood systems in a way that is better appreciated by stakeholders

Methods for environment: productivity trade-off analysis in agricultural systems

Trade-off analysis has become an increasingly important approach for evaluating system level outcomes of agricultural production and for prioritising and targeting management interventions in multi-functional agricultural landscapes. We review the strengths and weakness of different techniques available for performing trade-off analysis. These techniques, including mathematical programming and participatory approaches, have developed substantially in recent years aided by mathematical advancement, increased computing power, and emerging insights into systems behaviour. The strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches are identified and discussed, and we make suggestions for a tiered approach for situations with different data availability. This chapter is a modified and extended version of Klapwijk et al. (2014)

Adaptive livestock production models for rural livelihoods transformation

Over 60% of land in southern Africa is suitable for livestock production and the contribution to gross domestic product is about 36%. Livestock play important roles in rural livelihood systems including food provision like meat and milk, services like draught power and transport, nutrient supply through manure, and key sociocultural roles like bride price and household firm. However, climate change threatens livestock industry through loss of feed-base, increased disease incidences, and increased global footprint for greenhouse gas production, more restrictive livestock production polices. More difficulties in livestock industry would lead to low supply of livestock products, low off-take, under developed marketing infrastructure, and poor market access leading to increased poverty in rural households. The main objective of this chapter is to explore opportunities for livestock production and marketing systems that can transform the livestock industry and help to build resilience through climate-smart technologies. Livestock is a form of wealth, source of draught power and manure; however, the livestock contributes to greenhouse gases through belching and manure mineralization. Production systems should take into account increased productivity with reduced environmental pollution

Towards utilization of water hyacinth for industrial products: A Review paper

Water hyacinth is a useful weed in the cleaning of water bodies loaded with industrial effluent but can become an environmental problem if its growth is not controlled. Water hyacinth is a potential raw material of several industrial applications. However chemical structure of the lignocellulosic hyacinth biomass has to be broken down first in order to obtain fermentable sugars. Wood rotting fungi has been known to delignify plant biomass. Wood rotting fungi secrete extracellular enzymes including lignin peroxidase, manganese peroxidase and laccase that are important industrial enzymes with numerous biotechnological applications in bio-fuel, food, brewery and wine, animal feed, textile and laundry, pulp and paper and agricultural industries. This paper reviews the potential use of white rot fungi's (Pleurotus sajor caju, Pleurotus ostreatus and Lentinus edodes) extracellular enzymes to biodegrade water hyacinth biomass.Keywords: water hyacinth, lignocelluloses, wood rotting fungi, extracellular enzyme

Effects of Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight & Arn (Fabaceae) on herbaceous species in a semi-arid rangeland in Zimbabwe

Anthropogenic alteration of an environment and other disturbance regimes may enable the expansion of some native species into new geographical areas, a phenomenon observed with Dichrostachys cinerea. Five D. cinerea invaded sites, each approximately one hectare in size were assessed for the effects of D. cinerea on native herbaceous species diversity, richness, basal cover, litter cover, top hamper and plant vigour. The same attributes were studied in five uninvaded sites adjacent to, and equal in size to each invaded site. Forty herbaceous species were identified in the area. There were significant differences (P <0.05) noted in species richness, basal cover, litter cover, top hamper, plant vigour, and species diversities between invaded and uninvaded sites, with uninvaded sites recording higher values than invaded sites. Altitude, erosion and the edaphic variables pH, N, P and K, which were included as explanatory variables, also differed significantly (

Climate-smart crop production in semi-arid areas through increased knowledge of varieties, environment and management factors

In large regions of sub-Saharan Africa, semi-arid conditions are likely to increase with climate change, yet these regions are becoming more important to feed production zones due to increasing population pressure. A production system in the semi-arid south eastern Zimbabwe was studied to assess different possible growth conditions of food crop in relation to seasonal differences, spatial rainfall distribution, use of organic nutrients and different position in the landscape. The growth and yield of four crops (maize, sorghum, millet and groundnut) were assessed with or without manure during two seasons (2008/2009 and 2009/2010) in different landscape positions. Daily rainfall, soil and manure nutrient levels, seed germination, crop establishment, grain yield and above-ground residue biomass were measured. Most important determining factors of crop yield were landscape position and the different within season rainfall distribution of the two seasons. Manure increased yield of sorghum grown in upland and maize grown in lower lowlands. Millet was affected by Quelea quelea birds, the reason why it is unpopular in south eastern Zimbabwe. Best-fit strategies can double total yield from 1.67 to 3.29 t/ha from the average 5.1 ha that farmers usually crop in south east Zimbabwe. Farmers in semi-arid areas can reduce risk of total crop failure by making a clever use of both the low lying and the upland areas depending on crops of their interest

Adaptive livelihood strategies employed by farmers to close the food gap in semi-arid south eastern Zimbabwe

Rural households in semi-arid areas of southern Africa are confronted with numerous hazards that threaten the household food base. The new wildlife policy of establishing transfrontier conservation areas aims to increase conservation of wildlife resources while improving local livelihoods. This policy can be better appreciated by local people if it embraces knowledge of the adaptive strategies they employ to close the food gap. We assessed how different households responded to the major hazard, drought, in order to gain insight into how these households addressed critical questions of food availability. Informal interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions were conducted to determine how households can be disaggregated according to their livelihood patterns and a questionnaire was applied to learn how each group responded to drought. Data were analysed within the three livelihood types that were identified and described at local level as cattle-based, crop-based and non-farm based. We found that factors that aggravated the effects of drought are specific to the different household types and their responses were also specific to that particular household type. Disaggregation of the livelihood types revealed within and between type relations and interactions that are important to people in order to cope. For example, even though cropping is an important activity across the three livelihood types, specifically in cattle and crop-based types, the non-farm type becomes important in restocking inputs after a serious drought through cross-border trading. Livestock and cross-border trading are important coping strategies for all three livelihood types, with the cattle-based trading cattle, the crop-based trading goats and poultry and the non-farm based linking with markets for trading livestock, drugs and restocked inputs for the cattle-based and crop-based groups. These linkages among livelihood types are important factors in reducing vulnerability to change that only become visible as a result of this disaggregation. We conclude that additional policies of enhancing the resilience of local food systems by stimulating across-border livestock trading and formal market set-up and enhancing systems of adaptation that are already in existence (e.g., crop production in the Banyeni) can add value to the success of transfrontier conservation areas in southern Africa