Exploring Alternative Non-traditional Food Security Strategies To Leverage Conservation and For Reslience in Southern Zambia
Jimmiel Mandima
Food security strategies in two landscapes in Southern Africa where the African Wildlife Foundation works on wildlife conservation and local community livelihoods were assessed. The analysis focused on sites in Zambiaas southern province in the Zambezi Valley which are characterized by chronic food insecurity (Jimmiel Mandima et al, 2011). An antecedent detailed study on key food security strategies common in these areas was followed by a focused in-depth analysis of two relatively novel livelihood strategies community based goat production in Siavonga District, and community based fish farming in Chiawa Chiefdom in Lower Zambezi, and in Mwandi Chiefdom in the Upper Zambezi. The assessments used open-ended discussion interviews with the beneficiary representatives and other stakeholders who served as key informants. For goat production, interventions that included extensive farmer training and distribution of improved breed specimens yielded increased income. Similar improvements were observed from fish farming interventions with the trained members of the community cooperative realizing increased incomes and subsequently reducing unsustainable fishing pressures on the local river systems. It is concluded that when innovative goat production and community fish farming are promoted as alternative food security strategies in localities that are vulnerable to climate change, local communities positively alter their impacts on the natural environment and increase their incomes simultaneously. In both programs, local incomes were increased, additional food protein was generated and sold to markets, and behaviors changed to resilience based on sustainable approaches to livelihood development.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2015
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