Analysis of Livelihoods and Food Consumption Challenges in the Face of Persistent Droughts in Bulilima District of Rural Zimbabwe in Matabeleland South

Abstract

The study analysed rural livelihood and food consumption challenges and coping options under adverse impacts of persistent droughts among subsistence farmers in rural Zimbabwe. The results indicated that subsistence farmers are highly affected by persistent droughts and livelihoods and food consumption highly constrained by the phenomenon.  However despite the sad reality of lack of deliberate policies, institutions and systems to mitigate the problem of drought in the district, farmers somehow constructed and reconstructed themselves to cope with droughts.The study further revealed that participants were not passive victims of drought, as demonstrated by various alternative livelihoods that they adopted in coping with the phenomenon. Some of the adaptive coping strategies adopted by participants were dietary shifting, reliance on casual labour, dependence on remittances, and to some extent participants utilized their own production. Markets and wild fruits (wild foods gathering) also played a major role. Participants were enterprising and innovative, and employed their indigenous knowledge systems to predict weather patterns in the absence of conventional modern weather predictions. The local communities adopted alternative livelihoods and income sources in order to cope with drought.