热博体育

Enjeux

The agricultural sector in Zimbabwe accounts for approximately 17% of GDP and provides employment and income for 60-70% of the population. It is primarily structured around subsistence, with maize as the main staple crop and limited use of external inputs. The dominant crop and livestock systems have low resource use efficiency and generally have negative environmental impacts. In these systems, yields fall considerably short of their potential given the climate and soil physical constraints, and poverty levels are very high.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that Southern Africa will suffer from climate change. This means that adapting the agricultural sector to climate change is a national priority, requiring the formulation of reactive policies at the highest level. Zimbabwe has developed a ten-year framework (2018-2028) to facilitate the promotion of climate-smart agriculture (CSA). However, the adoption of CSA remains limited. Agroecological practices (AE) and the integrated systems perspective within agroecological approaches could help to address climate change challenges and to improve sustainable agricultural intensification in Zimbabwe.

The European Union (EU) delegation to Zimbabwe, in collaboration with the member states concerned, has developed the Team Europe Initiative (TEI) on “Climate-smart agriculture-based resilience building”. The objective of this initiative is to assist Zimbabwe in implementing the necessary changes to improve agricultural production and to make agriculture more climate-resilient, while protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The RAIZ project forms the “research” component of this TEI. Its goal is to provide scientific evidence and experience for the design, implementation and monitoring of the CSA component of the TEI and its future projects.

Description

The activities of the project are as follows:

1. Providing guidance for the design, implementation and monitoring of the CSA component of the TEI

• Identifying ongoing experiments and successes in agroecology and CSA, and drawing lessons for resilience building;
• Identifying knowledge gaps and research questions for more resilient agriculture.

2. Developing concepts and methods to promote ecological intensification approaches and practices

• Developing concepts and methodologies to be used in all research sites for the active participation of farmers and local communities in identifying their land-use and agricultural practices, and assessing these against sustainable intensification, adaptation and mitigation objectives;
• Identifying and selecting ecological intensification approaches, practices and innovations at each research site;
• Conducting surveys and participatory experiments;
• Building and facilitating multi-stakeholder innovation platforms.

3. Assessing and documenting experiments and results obtained with agroecology approaches and practices regarding their adoption and their contribution to CSA

• Scientifically assessing and documenting the experiments carried out and the problems encountered during the implementation of activities at each research site;
• Conducting an integrated assessment of social, economic and environmental sustainability at each research site, including criteria on farm income, inclusion of young people and women, and key ecosystem services. This assessment will use multi-criteria empirical methods, models and experimental economics approaches;
• Organising discussions of results with the stakeholders concerned and jointly identifying the adaptations and changes needed at the level of farms, communities and agricultural advisory services (extension), as well as with TEI donors and current or potential partners.

4. Capacity building for extension and advisory services on agroecological approaches and their contribution to intensification, adaptation and mitigation

• Developing a user-friendly decision support framework for the agricultural system and associated training materials to advise and train farmers on the optimal allocation of resources at the farm and local authority levels;
• Preparing a manual with guidelines and techniques to provide specific support for women and young people in agriculture;
• Designing and implementing a train-the-trainers programme for extension agents.

5. Developing curricula to promote agroecology and CSA in higher education

• Reviewing and assessing current higher education curricula in agriculture (bachelor’s, master’s 1 and master’s 2 levels) and collaborating with faculty to adapt course content on the contribution of agroecology to agricultural systems that are more productive, higher paying and more environmentally sustainable, with a particular focus on advocacy for women and young people in agriculture;
• Developing master’s internships to enable students to participate in the implementation of the project and the TEI, thereby gaining practical experience in agroecology and CSA and transferring the new knowledge acquired into workplace contexts.

6. Providing scientific facts for the policy dialogue on agroecology and CSA in Zimbabwe

• Reviewing and assessing existing policies and strategies related to CSA;
• Publishing articles based on established scientific results, including thematic papers on the economic, social and environmental impacts of agroecological techniques, with a particular focus on gender issues and the role of young people;
• Organising workshops to conduct structured discussions with policymakers and a broad range of other key stakeholders to produce guidance notes.

Expected results

• Guidelines will be provided for the design, implementation and monitoring of the CSA component of the TEI;
• Concepts and methods to promote agroecological approaches and practices will be developed and adapted to local contexts;
• Experiments and results obtained with agroecological approaches and practices will be assessed in terms of their adoption and their contribution to CSA, and will be documented;
• The capacities of extension and advisory services on agroecological approaches and their contribution to intensification, adaptation and mitigation will be strengthened;
• Curricula will be developed to encourage agroecology and CSA in higher education;
• Scientific facts will be provided for the policy debate on agroecology and CSA in Zimbabwe.