Civil Society, New Farming Technologies and Acceptability by Local Communities In Zimbabwe: A Case Study of Conservation Farming Project in Gokwe South District in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The ensuing study dwells on the micro-politics embedded in the implementation of conservation farming as a new farming technology to ameliorate the catastrophic effects of incessant droughts as well as the threats posed by climate change in rural Zimbabwe, with a particular focus on Gokwe south district. In addition to that, it also seeks to elicit the local farmer’s perceptions on conservation farming vis-a-vis those espoused by the exponents of the said farming enterprise. It reveals that instead of improving rural livelihoods, conservation farming has been plunged into a battlefield resulting in an ambivalent relationship between the actors involved. Such an ambivalent relationship relentlessly impinges on the overall acceptability and sustainability of the program in question despite the much-projected merits associated with it in contemporary rural development circles. The paper goes on to argue that unless and until the Civil Society considers conservation farming as a political arena and the subsequent micro-politics that emanate from such a political field, the goal of sustainable development will remain a pipeline dream. The panacea to this dilemma therefore rests in the desire to genuinely embrace the principles of “Development from below” or adopt a people-centered developmental approach that considers beneficiaries of conservation farming as the real owners of the program for Sustainable Agriculture. The study was grounded in purely qualitative research and adopted unstructured interviews, Focus Group Discussions, and the use of secondary sources of data as the main data-soliciting techniques for this study. Norman Long’s Actor Oriented Approach was utilized as the analytical framework for the findings made in this study.