Effectiveness of Drought Mitigation Strategies in Bikita District, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Drought induced famine has been the worst disaster from which most rural people experience immense anguish. It still remains a National Policy agenda and a problem in most developing countries like Zimbabwe. Due to climate change, the impacts of droughts are expected to deepen where the capacity to adapt is low. Though it remains a challenge in communities, local people have devised different coping mechanisms based on the resources that are locally available but the effectiveness of these mechanisms are questionable. Therefore, using both qualitative and quantitative research methods this paper aims at identifying the drought mitigation strategies used in the Ward 2 of Bikita District, assess the impacts of these strategies and examine the challenges faced during attempts to implement them. Results indicated that in Ward 2 of Bikita District, people are using drought mitigation strategies which include food aid, food for work, and sale of livestock, remittances and irrigation scheme. It was also revealed that the most effective drought mitigation strategies were provision of food aid and food for work whereas the least effective were remittances and irrigation. The study also revealed that 72% of the community was not satisfied with the effectiveness of all the drought mitigation strategies being used. These strategies are held back by challenges in the Ward which include poor service delivery by NGOs and Government departments in mitigating droughts, poverty, corruption, lack of resources and unclear selection criterion of beneficiaries as well as lack of markets thereby leading to inefficiency of the drought mitigation strategies. The study recommended the construction of more dams and necessary infrastructure for irrigation, adoption of local knowledge into mitigation strategies, improving access to agricultural inputs and enhanced provision of technical assistance to farmers in the area.