Project Summary
Matobo’s primary livelihood option is agriculture, with a strong focus on livestock production1. Crop cultivation, including maize, sorghum, and millet, is also practiced. However, these activities are hampered by climate change as the district lies under agroecological regions 4/5. The district has a semi-arid climate, characterized by low and erratic rainfall (400-450 mm annually) and high temperatures (26-38°C)2. The effects manifest through heat waves and persistent droughts. Recurrent droughts have led to both crop failure and livestock mortality due to pasture shortages and degraded grazing lands. The overarching consequence is severe food insecurity, resulting in high rates of malnutrition, particularly among women and children. This places the district with a high poverty prevalence of 78%, which is above the national rural average of 76%. One of the targeted Wards (Ward 16) is particularly affected, with a poverty rate of 84.4%3. The district’s acute malnutrition (GAM) rate exceeds the acceptable threshold of 5%4 (ZimVAC, 2024). The El Niño-induced droughts worsened the already devastating effects
The recurrent natural disasters have reduced the safe water supply in the district, as water points have dried up.5. Statistics show that less than 30% of boreholes in Matobo are functional, and the boreholes are seasonal as they run dry during the driest period of the year.6 The alternative safe water sources are at average of more than 87 km away. This exposes women and girls to long distances, unpaid care work, and worsens exposure to human and wildlife conflicts (as the district is also endowed with diverse wildlife). The pressure on households to provide food is already leading to negative coping strategies for livelihoods, which include school dropouts (due to distance, hunger, and to become de facto parents), early marriage, child labour, crime, migration, and transactional sex.8. Yet, the district’s access to basic services, including health, is limited. According to the district-level estimates, the HIV/ AIDS infection rate is 0.64%, which is above the national average of 0.54%. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic further placed children in the districts at higher risk of illness and put pressure on the already dilapidated health infrastructure.
Socially, the district experiences climate change-induced displacement and migration to neighboring countries, such as Botswana and South Africa, in search of better livelihoods. This migration leaves female-headed households in a highly vulnerable state. Culturally, the district remains endowed with a patriarchal society with men dominating most economic decisions. The district is the center for national monuments, making it plausible for the indigenous knowledge system, which is key to the agroecology transition. On the economic front, farmers face barriers to market access. Poor road infrastructure, weak producer groups, currency fluctuations, and unfavorable payment terms from the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) affect their market competitiveness.
FPC’s agroecological interventions provide a vital safety net against these district-level challenges. This is achieved by establishing VBUs with reliable water access, providing diverse agroecological livelihood options, and creating strong market linkages, all while simultaneously ensuring sustainable natural resource management.
Proposed Interventions
FPC targets wards 16, 17, and 18 of Matobo District. These wards have already been allocated to FPC through its MOU with the Matobo Rural District Council. This selection also builds on existing foundational work by FPC and Trócaire, such as the Bank of Ireland and ICSP projects. While the allocation aligns with FPC’s proposed interventions and vulnerability criteria, FPC will abide by the RDC’s directives during ward allocation engagements.
Outcome 1: Smallholder farmers particularly women, youth, and people with disabilities, adopt and sustain agroecological practices through strengthened peer-to-peer learning, functional Agroecology Learning Centres, and resilient community seed systems.
Climate-induced impacts necessitate the adoption of sustainable farming systems. This makes agroecology a critical intervention under this outcome and overall project. To achieve this, FPC will first strengthen the capacity of Lead Farmers to facilitate peer-to-peer agroecological learning. These Lead Farmers will then cascade knowledge to their peers. This ensures long-term sustainability because they remain in the community long after the project concludes. Past initiatives taught FPC that training Lead Farmers in isolation creates friction with Agricultural Business Advisory Officers (formerly Agritex), while training ABAOs alone alienates their supervisors. To prevent these rifts, FPC will simultaneously engage lead farmers, ABAOs, and their supervisors across all three wards to co-facilitate peer-to-peer learning. FPC will follow up these sessions with regular refresher courses to keep pace with evolving agroecological knowledge.
Successful adoption also relies on establishing Agroecology Learning Centres to showcase diverse practices. FPC will establish three centres in Matobo. We learned from past phases that distant learning centers become underutilized due to accessibility barriers. Therefore, FPC will strategically place these new centers at central, easily accessible points. Because this requires land allocation, FPC will first collaborate with district and ward authorities to identify and site three potential centers. FPC will then procure water pumping infrastructure and fencing materials before commencing construction. To foster community ownership, beneficiaries will actively contribute labor to the construction process.
Furthermore, driving the adoption of agroecology requires practical learning through co-creation and horizontal knowledge-sharing platforms, a core pillar of the 10 Elements of Agroecology. FPC will facilitate farmer-to-farmer learning exchanges and knowledge cafes. These platforms will feature ward, district, and national seed fairs, regular ward-level field days hosted by best farmers, and inter-district learning visits to areas showcasing best practices. FPC maintains that farmer-to-farmer learning yields the most impactful and lasting results.
Finally, adopting agroecology requires securing seed sovereignty. FPC will establish local seed banks to safeguard this resource. Incorporating lessons from previous phases, FPC will set up governing committees trained in leadership and, crucially, technical seed inspection, testing, and selection. This addresses a key gap in previous projects, which relied solely on visual inspection. Additionally, FPC will form ward subcommittees to inspect seeds locally and will provide specialized seed-testing equipment to ensure high-quality standards.
Outcome 2: Restored ecosystems and strengthened Natural Resource Management through increased community voice and influence.
Climate change impacts have accelerated the depletion of natural resources. This results in land and ecosystem degradation. To restore these ecosystems and improve natural resource management (NRM), FPC will collaborate with existing community structures, such as the environmental subcommittees established by the Rural District Council (RDC) and the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) under their respective Acts. FPC will first conduct a needs assessment to map existing gaps within these structures, allowing the team to prioritize specific training areas. To drive ecosystem restoration, FPC will focus on biodiversity recovery and environmental rehabilitation activities, including gulley reclamation. The team will review the district’s Local Environmental Action Plans (LEAPs) and collaborate with the RDC to align with the target wards’ priority action plans. It means FPC will then execute biodiversity and environmental restoration activities based on these Land Use Plans (LUPs) and LEAPs.
Additionally, FPC will lead a geographical mapping and identification exercise in partnership with local communities, the Ministry of Agriculture, RDC, and EMA to identify wetlands and watersheds requiring protection or rehabilitation. Following this mapping, FPC will fence and rehabilitate the prioritized wetlands and install clear environmental visibility and awareness signage. The key lesson FPC learned over the past years is that while wetlands fall under EMA’s jurisdiction, fencing and pegging initiatives require direct collaboration and alignment with the Ministry of Agriculture.
Furthermore, natural resource management requires precise resource mapping and community-level capacity building. FPC will map critical natural resources tied directly to agricultural interventions and conduct a comprehensive value chain analysis of the same. A biased and specific focus will be on non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Once these resources are identified, FPC will train communities on sustainable management, harvesting techniques, and utilization methods for NTFPs and other mapped resources. We will also ensure all activities in the natural resources management are guided by the district bylaws.
Long-term resource management demands that communities design and track their own restoration roadmaps. FPC will support communities in developing and monitoring community-derived natural resource management plans. This process will empower local communities to actively contribute to and implement existing macro-level plans, such as LEAPs and LUPs, while tracking their progress. A critical lesson from previous projects reveals that most district LEAPs are outdated. Therefore, FPC will use this project as an entry point to assist the RDC in updating these framework documents where necessary.
Outcome 3: Households diversify and strengthen their livelihoods through agroecologically produced food and products, supported by labor-saving technologies, value addition, and improved market access.
To achieve this outcome, FPC will focus primarily on diversifying income streams and livelihoods using the agroecological practices. Because intensive labor requirements often hinder the adoption of agroecology, this project will introduce labor-saving technologies. Rather than relying on direct distribution, FPC will implement a matching-grant subsidy model to foster community ownership and long-term sustainability. Community-owned equipment frequently triggers governance challenges. Given this, FPC will prioritize training user groups on governance frameworks. This intervention will also include technical maintenance training to ensure farmers can independently service and maintain the machinery after the project concludes. Furthermore, aligning with the government’s Village Business Unit (VBU) model, FPC will establish VBUs to diversify incomes, improve water access, and enhance food security. Specifically, the project will establish two solar-powered, 2-hectare irrigated agroecology VBUs that integrate fisheries, agroforestry, demonstration plots, horticulture, and nursery enterprises. A critical initial step will involve collaborating with the RDC for proper land allocation and site selection. Finally, in partnership with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, FPC will train VBU groups on governance. The focus will be on committee selection, constitution drafting, and financial management. Other general training in the VBU will include agroecology production practices, value addition, and marketing strategies.
FPC will also integrate cross-cutting initiatives into the project. Focus will be heavily on evidence generation and policy advocacy through existing stakeholder platforms. FPC will actively participate in district-level convening spaces and host capacity-building sessions for stakeholders on agroecology principles, the Agroecology transition, and monitoring frameworks. This training will equip stakeholders with the necessary knowledge to monitor agroecological interventions. Additionally, the project will drive evidence generation by developing agroecology knowledge products and conducting participatory action research and participatory video-making to facilitate community-led learning and advocacy. To influence systemic policy changes, FPC will commission the development and domestication of the Matobo Agroecology Transition Strategy and Action Plan. This will align perfectly with the existing National Agroecology Strategy and the low-hanging fruit for its implementation.