DETERMINANTS OF CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE DISSEMINATION STRATEGIES IN CHIREDZI, ZIMBABWE

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify determinants of Climate-Smart Agriculture dissemination among different categories of smallholder farmers. It notes that climatic change is a global phenomenon that requires stakeholders to exercise their minds, as a collective, to find long-lasting solutions. Although the potential of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is acknowledged in academia and among development agencies, it remains unclear whether smallholder farmers would be willing to adopt the initiative. Whereas CSA has been hailed as a way of cushioning smallholder famers from the vagaries of climate change, determinants of its dissemination are unclear to smallholder farmers. This article draws data from the smallholder farmer in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe; and it finds that categories in technology adoption are characterised by different levels of risks that farmers are keen to take, human capital, resource endowment and entitlements, reliability, and accessibility of the strategy and its geographical coverage in terms of space and time. Therefore, the article concludes that the uptake of the strategy is influenced by both extension officers’ and smallholder farmers’ capacity and capability to adopt and diffuse. The article recommends that a people-centered approach to strategy dissemination is pivotal for sustainable CSA uptake among smallholder farmers. Keywords: Climate-Smart Agriculture, Diffusion of Innovation Theory, Extension officer, Smallholder farming