Resilience and Livelihood Diversification in the Face of the Covid-19 Pandemic

A Case of Smallholder Farmers in Goromonzi District, Zimbabwe

Bibliographic Data

ID5245252
AuthorsClement Chipenda (0000-0003-0112-8922, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume69
Issue4
Pages125-149
Publication date2023-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrica Today (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9887 • E-ISSN: 1527-1978
PublisherIndiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2979/at.2023.a900111
OpenAlexW4386777714
LanguageEN
Citations received2

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on humanity, and rural households have not been spared. Focusing on Goromonzi District in rural Zimbabwe, this article employs the sustainable livelihoods framework to investigate its effects on agricultural production and marketing by resettled farmers in the first year of the pandemic. It shows that COVID brought with it several shocks, stresses, and vulnerabilities that affected rural households. It goes on to explore the risk-coping strategies that such households employed. Rural households can be seen as having used their agency to engage in diversified livelihood activities, by which they strengthened their coping capabilities and thus responded to the pandemic. With livelihoods at the center of analysis and capabilities, assets, and resources framing the discussion, the article provides an empirically grounded contribution on the immediate ramifications of the pandemic on rural households in Zimbabwe and how they managed to cope

Agriculture · Business · Coping (psychology) · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Development economics · Diversification (marketing strategy) · Economic growth · Economics · Framing (construction) · Geography · Livelihood · Pandemic · Political science · Psychological resilience · Rural area · Socioeconomics · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Marketing · Medicine · Psychology

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