Climate change adaptation for sustenance of rural livelihoods in Jotsholo, Lupane District, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Climate change is a serious challenge on a global and local scale, with severe consequences for rural livelihoods sustainability and socioeconomic well-being. The study's major objective was to examine how rural livelihoods in Jotsholo, Lupane district in Zimbabwe are adapting to climate change. With the goal of arming research participants against climate change vagaries, rural livelihood policies and rural household’s knowledge levels were examined in the study. The research also examined the effects of climate change on biophysical and socioeconomic situations before evaluating adaptation approaches to climatic occurrences after examining relevant literature and collecting primary data. The study was anchored on the Conservation of Resources Theory and the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach. Incorporating features such as people-centeredness, flexibility, responsiveness, and participatory action, the frameworks that were utilized assisted in identifying the sources of strength for improving sustainability and creating resilience among rural livelihoods. This was complemented by observations and secondary data. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were both beneficial in presenting and analyzing data. The study’s findings demonstrated that climate change's vagaries have a detrimental effect on Jotsholo's biophysical and socioeconomic situations as reflected by water shortages and few sustainable livelihoods strategies utilized. The findings also reflected that though the participants have knowledge of understanding that climate change was taking place, there was low adaptive capacity as a result of lack of adaptation knowledge. Adaptation strategies in the Jotsholo ward included cultivating drought-tolerant crops, rearing animals that like goats and sheep, livelihoods diversification, and conservation farming. A number of challenges were identified as hampering climate change adaptation thus insufficient funding, inadequate infrastructure, unfavourable market conditions and the scarcity of alternative fuels. To ensure the sustainability in climate adaptation, the study recommended properly constituted, enhanced, and monitored policies to be put in place with a bottom up approach to inculcate ownership. More capacity building and awareness campaigns should be initiated to increase the adaptive capacity for the rural households. A climate adaptation plan was developed with the study participants with the aim of enhancing the adaptive capacity in Jotsholo, Lupane district.