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The contribution of small-scale rural irrigation schemes towards food security of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe

Smallholder farmers across Zimbabwe have been facing a problem of food insecurity because of climate-induced droughts and lack of effective use of irrigation schemes. Rainfall patterns in the country have become more unpredictable and inconsistent with the traditional farming seasons. Faced with suc...

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Autores principales: Mhembwe, Smart, Chiunya, Newman, Dube, Ernest
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: AOSIS 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6852592/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31745405
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v11i1.674
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author Mhembwe, Smart
Chiunya, Newman
Dube, Ernest
author_facet Mhembwe, Smart
Chiunya, Newman
Dube, Ernest
author_sort Mhembwe, Smart
collection PubMed
description Smallholder farmers across Zimbabwe have been facing a problem of food insecurity because of climate-induced droughts and lack of effective use of irrigation schemes. Rainfall patterns in the country have become more unpredictable and inconsistent with the traditional farming seasons. Faced with such challenges, many smallholder farmers in Shurugwi district in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe adopted small-scale irrigation schemes to improve food security. The principal objectives of this study were to examine the status of the irrigation schemes in the district; analyse the need to rehabilitate small-scale irrigation schemes; assess the initiatives towards the revival of irrigation schemes; establish the benefits that can accrue to smallholder farmers from small-scale irrigation schemes and discuss challenges faced by smallholder farmers in the running of small-scale irrigation schemes in rural areas. This qualitative study employed literature and interviews to obtain data from 40 purposively selected participants. The direct observation method was used to compliment the interviews. The findings of the study were that small-scale rural irrigation schemes have the capacity to significantly transform the lives of rural farmers through earning increased reliable income from farming if institutional and capacity issues of the farmers are addressed. Furthermore, the study found that small-scale irrigation schemes can also be a panacea to food security challenges mainly faced by rural households. As such, the article concluded that irrigation schemes are fortress and antidote to the effects of climate change. The study calls for capacity promotion on technical skills for the farmers, the establishment of many new irrigation schemes and the rehabilitation of the existing small-scale irrigation schemes in the country as well as calling on the farmers to adopt climate-smart irrigation.
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spelling pubmed-68525922019-11-19 The contribution of small-scale rural irrigation schemes towards food security of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe Mhembwe, Smart Chiunya, Newman Dube, Ernest Jamba Original Research Smallholder farmers across Zimbabwe have been facing a problem of food insecurity because of climate-induced droughts and lack of effective use of irrigation schemes. Rainfall patterns in the country have become more unpredictable and inconsistent with the traditional farming seasons. Faced with such challenges, many smallholder farmers in Shurugwi district in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe adopted small-scale irrigation schemes to improve food security. The principal objectives of this study were to examine the status of the irrigation schemes in the district; analyse the need to rehabilitate small-scale irrigation schemes; assess the initiatives towards the revival of irrigation schemes; establish the benefits that can accrue to smallholder farmers from small-scale irrigation schemes and discuss challenges faced by smallholder farmers in the running of small-scale irrigation schemes in rural areas. This qualitative study employed literature and interviews to obtain data from 40 purposively selected participants. The direct observation method was used to compliment the interviews. The findings of the study were that small-scale rural irrigation schemes have the capacity to significantly transform the lives of rural farmers through earning increased reliable income from farming if institutional and capacity issues of the farmers are addressed. Furthermore, the study found that small-scale irrigation schemes can also be a panacea to food security challenges mainly faced by rural households. As such, the article concluded that irrigation schemes are fortress and antidote to the effects of climate change. The study calls for capacity promotion on technical skills for the farmers, the establishment of many new irrigation schemes and the rehabilitation of the existing small-scale irrigation schemes in the country as well as calling on the farmers to adopt climate-smart irrigation. AOSIS 2019-10-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6852592/ /pubmed/31745405 http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v11i1.674 Text en © 2019. The Authors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
spellingShingle Original Research
Mhembwe, Smart
Chiunya, Newman
Dube, Ernest
The contribution of small-scale rural irrigation schemes towards food security of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe
title The contribution of small-scale rural irrigation schemes towards food security of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe
title_full The contribution of small-scale rural irrigation schemes towards food security of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe
title_fullStr The contribution of small-scale rural irrigation schemes towards food security of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed The contribution of small-scale rural irrigation schemes towards food security of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe
title_short The contribution of small-scale rural irrigation schemes towards food security of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe
title_sort contribution of small-scale rural irrigation schemes towards food security of smallholder farmers in zimbabwe
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6852592/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31745405
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v11i1.674
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