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Communal farming, climate change adaptation and the media in Zimbabwe

Climate change is destroying Zimbabwean communal farmers’ agricultural activities – a source of living for most people. As communal farmers struggle to adapt, the media is expected to assume a fundamental theoretical role of educating and informing them about the appropriate adaptation techniques. L...

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Autores principales: Ndhlovu, Mthokozisi P., Mpofu, Thabani
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: AOSIS 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6014118/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29955315
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v8i3.239
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author Ndhlovu, Mthokozisi P.
Mpofu, Thabani
author_facet Ndhlovu, Mthokozisi P.
Mpofu, Thabani
author_sort Ndhlovu, Mthokozisi P.
collection PubMed
description Climate change is destroying Zimbabwean communal farmers’ agricultural activities – a source of living for most people. As communal farmers struggle to adapt, the media is expected to assume a fundamental theoretical role of educating and informing them about the appropriate adaptation techniques. Located in Umguza District in Matabeleland North Province, the study explored how communal farmers created meaning out of climate change media content and its influence on their agricultural practices from October 2014 to April 2015. In doing so, the study used the Two-Step Flow theory and Hall’s Encoding and Decoding Model. Entrenched in pragmatism, the study embedded quantitative techniques at different stages. Multistage sampling combining Simple Random Sampling (SRS), purposive and systematic sampling techniques was used to identify the 263 households for semi structured questionnaires, direct observations and in-depth interviews. The findings were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), thematic analysis and pattern matching. The results show that personal observations; print, broadcast and online media; and opinion leaders were the main sources of climate change information. The radio was the most used medium in communicating climate change adaptation though it was the second most accessed after mobile phones. Conservation Agriculture and planting of drought-resistant crops were some of the adaptation techniques communicated in the media. When interacting with media content, communal farmers create their own meaning influenced by their cultural values, resulting in some adopting, rejecting or modifying certain adaptation techniques. The study concludes that opinion leaders are fundamental in communal farmers’ interaction with media but their influence must not be overestimated.
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spelling pubmed-60141182018-06-28 Communal farming, climate change adaptation and the media in Zimbabwe Ndhlovu, Mthokozisi P. Mpofu, Thabani Jamba Original Research Climate change is destroying Zimbabwean communal farmers’ agricultural activities – a source of living for most people. As communal farmers struggle to adapt, the media is expected to assume a fundamental theoretical role of educating and informing them about the appropriate adaptation techniques. Located in Umguza District in Matabeleland North Province, the study explored how communal farmers created meaning out of climate change media content and its influence on their agricultural practices from October 2014 to April 2015. In doing so, the study used the Two-Step Flow theory and Hall’s Encoding and Decoding Model. Entrenched in pragmatism, the study embedded quantitative techniques at different stages. Multistage sampling combining Simple Random Sampling (SRS), purposive and systematic sampling techniques was used to identify the 263 households for semi structured questionnaires, direct observations and in-depth interviews. The findings were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), thematic analysis and pattern matching. The results show that personal observations; print, broadcast and online media; and opinion leaders were the main sources of climate change information. The radio was the most used medium in communicating climate change adaptation though it was the second most accessed after mobile phones. Conservation Agriculture and planting of drought-resistant crops were some of the adaptation techniques communicated in the media. When interacting with media content, communal farmers create their own meaning influenced by their cultural values, resulting in some adopting, rejecting or modifying certain adaptation techniques. The study concludes that opinion leaders are fundamental in communal farmers’ interaction with media but their influence must not be overestimated. AOSIS 2016-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC6014118/ /pubmed/29955315 http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v8i3.239 Text en © 2016. The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Licensee:AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
spellingShingle Original Research
Ndhlovu, Mthokozisi P.
Mpofu, Thabani
Communal farming, climate change adaptation and the media in Zimbabwe
title Communal farming, climate change adaptation and the media in Zimbabwe
title_full Communal farming, climate change adaptation and the media in Zimbabwe
title_fullStr Communal farming, climate change adaptation and the media in Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed Communal farming, climate change adaptation and the media in Zimbabwe
title_short Communal farming, climate change adaptation and the media in Zimbabwe
title_sort communal farming, climate change adaptation and the media in zimbabwe
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6014118/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29955315
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v8i3.239
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