ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the everyday lives and livelihoods of small-scale farmers in Ngundu in Chivi District, including agricultural and non-agricultural activities focusing on climate change adaptation. Local farmers’ understanding of climate change derives from their daily generational experiences of living and farming in the area. There is a cultural-cum-spiritual element to local conceptions of climate change, with elderly residents framing climate change with reference to villagers’ lost connection to ancestral spirits. Coping and adaptation measures exist, with some of these consolidating village-based ethics (such as hand-outs) while others (notably, sex work) going contrary to these ethics. Though willing to adopt externally driven adaptation programmes brought by donor and state agencies, farmers often are selective in doing so. They tend to draw upon agricultural practices which, in the past, were central to their agricultural way of life. Local farmers’ perceptions and concerns about climate change do not directly translate into climate change adaptation strategies, as a wide array of challenges and opportunities mediate the relationship between everyday concerns and adaptation processes.
