Livelihood Diversification for Climate Change Adaptation Among Smallholder Farmers in Gokwe North District of Zimbabwe

Climate is the average weather experienced in an area over a long period of time. When this normal or usual state of affairs in the atmosphere changes, it is called climate change. The change makes a negative impact on biodiversity including humanity since livelihoods and life sustenance strategies change due to new levels in measures of elements of climate. Rural farmers are usually the worst affected by such changes in environmental characteristics, taking time to recover because of underlying factors like lack of all types of resources, skills, capabilities, and poverty which affects resilience greatly. This chapter investigates the impacts of this change on the livelihoods of rural smallholder farmers in Gokwe North district of Zimbabwe, a remote, dry rural area in region 3 of the Midlands province. The gist of the chapter is to find out how the smallholder farmers are managing to cope and diversify their livelihoods for sustainability in the face of climate change, considering the underlying challenges mentioned above. The chapter examines the mitigation measures engaged by the smallholder farmers in the remote rural area, which are presented as livelihood diversification strategies. The paper employed observation, interviews, and focus group discussions for data gathering. Forty-two (42) men and women purposively selected from four villages participated in the research. The findings of the paper show that some smallholder farmers from Gokwe North have remained in the subsistence-mixed agriculture business, while some have resorted to seasonal market gardening, paid employment, artisanal mining, and food and vegetable vending, among other activities. The paper recommends that stakeholders should fund more sustainable projects, like water harvesting and environmental rehabilitation programmes in the whole district.