**1. Background**

Climate change through natural and anthropogenic forces has drastically changed the earth's climate over the past century worsening key challenges for global food production [1]. Climate change impacts, which are expected to be mainly negative, are likely to be felt mostly by the already vulnerable communities in economically less-developed countries. Most developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas outside the United States of America and Canada are generally poorly equipped both financially and infrastructurally which makes them more vulnerable to climate change impacts [2]. The effects of climate change are alarming enough in themselves, for instance, droughts, burning temperatures, more frequent hurricanes, worse floods and new plagues of diseases.

#### *Climate Change and Agriculture*

Climate change defines alterations in the long-term average conditions of the climate, persisting for unusually longer periods, which can be decades or generations [3]. These changes may be due to natural or persistent anthropogenic alterations in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. Climate variability, on the other hand, refers to unusual changes in the spatial and temporal state of climatic variables. Food is an incessant priority for subsistence for many indigenous minorities who are already vulnerable to changing environmental conditions. Due to a continuous dependence on agriculture for most livelihoods, the effects of climate change on productive croplands are likely to drastically threaten the wellbeing of the population [4]. The close relationship of minorities with their natural environments makes them mainly sensitive to the effects of climate change. One of the most outrageous examples of minorities' greater exposure to climate change is in India where indigenous minority groups known as Dalits, Adivass and Muslims were economically, physically and socially excluded from the rest of society [4]. As a result, they were worst hit by the abnormally severe monsoon floods in 2007.

Minority people tend to live close to nature, in relatively natural environments, rather than in cities, growing and making much of the food and other products that they need to survive [5]. This gives them an exceptionally intimate knowledge of local weather, plant and animal life. Customary wisdom on issues such as where to hunt for food or when to plant crops has been accrued over many generations, but now that the climate is shifting, some of those understandings are proving to be no longer applicable [6]. Masud et al. [7] also argue that some rainfall patterns have changed in line with what climate change scientists are predicting and, as a result, people's customary knowledge about when to plant crops is no longer consistent. Hence, the capability to accurately recognise the rainy season has suffered leading them to plant crops impulsively.

Coping strategies means actions that reduce the actual and expected effects of climate change making people adapt to prevailing conditions. These coping strategies can actually take place at a local level where people make changes they can, independently of government. Coping strategies can also be introduced by governments and NGOs to indigenous minority people. For example, in the Arctic Sam reindeer, herders transport food to the reindeer in winters when the animals cannot reach the lichen [8]. They also reverse their traditional pattern and take their animals inland during the summer and to the coast in winter, where there is no snow and so grazing is less. However, the author further asserts that their ability to adapt is limited by lack of financial resources and technical expertise. There is so much that they cannot perform without government support, and as a result, this affects the sustainability of their own introduced coping strategies. In Kenya, some pastoralists have adapted to climate change by growing livestock fodder crops in wetter areas near rivers, selling some of their livestock rather than allowing them to die during droughts [8]. But their insufficient representation in national politics has smashed their capacity to cope with the increasingly harsh climate thereby affecting the sustainability of their own coping strategies.

Climate variability has always been experienced in Southern Africa. During the 1991–1992 drought in Zimbabwe, average annual precipitation fluctuated from 335 to 1004 mm and averaged 640 mm [9]. Recurrent droughts and sporadic seasonal floods that have been experienced in the region have resulted in the loss of human life, livestock and property. They have also caused severe localised shortages of the main cereal crops like maize and other food items. Implications of climate change for Zimbabwe are serious. The number of years with below average rainfall is increasing. A survey on farmers' perceptions of climate change in Zimbabwe by Masendeke [10] indicates that farmers have noticed changes in the quantity, quality and efficacy of rainfall. There is a general decline in the amount of rainfall, which is

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*Beitbridge Minority Farmer Communities and Climate Change: Prospects for Sustainability*

to this day. This study therefore aims to cover this gap in knowledge.

Beitbridge lies in the Limpopo Valley, a paragneiss zone that stretches from the east of Chiredzi to the Border with Botswana. Mean annual rainfall for the district is between 300 and 600 mm [12]. Most of the rainfall is experienced in summer from October to March. Mean annual temperature is between 25 and 27.5°C. Soils in the district are varied, depending on the parent materials and age. On sedimentary formations, soils that occur in younger deposits are deep and often stratified. On levee deposits, soils are relatively light-textured with a high proportion of coarse sand of granitic origin. Basin areas have heavy-textured soils derived from fine materials deposited during floods. Vegetation varies from the savanna on deep fertile soils to shrub savanna on shallower ones. It is of lower stature of 2–6 m high with a sparse grass cover of mainly *Sporobolus* spp (love grass) and *Cynodon dactylon*. Common trees in this region include mopani, which is prevalent on salt-rich soils, baobab, *marula* and various species of combretum and acacia [13]. Apart from the urban setting of Beitbridge as a border town with South Africa, the west of Beitbridge district is semi-arid, remote and marginal. Farmers are generally sedentary pastoralists who practice dry land farming which concentrates on drought-tolerant small grains like sorghum, millet and rapoko. Communities in Beitbridge traditionally keep large heads of the indigenous thuli cattle and other breeds. They also keep large flocks of sheep and goats. The district has some natural salt pans where salt extraction takes place. Beitbridge has a heterogeneous population of marginalised minority farmer communities which include the Venda, Shangani and Suthu. There is no evidence of a concerted study which disaggregates the age-sex classes of each of these minority ethnic communities and this emphasises their social and economic vulnerability. However, Beitbridge district has a population of 80,083 (14) comprised mainly of these three ethnic groups whose combined population, together with other Bantuspeaking minority ethnic communities like the Tonga (Binga district) and Kalanga (Bulilima and Mangwe districts) is slightly over 1% of Zimbabwe's total population

more pronounced in the semi-arid tropics, the largest part of which is constituted by south-west Zimbabwe, the study area. Zimbabwe has an agricultural economy which is generally rain-fed. It has a rural population of more than 70% which depends on subsistence agriculture for livelihood [11]. This makes most sectors of the national economy sensitive to extreme changes or shifts to weather and climatic patterns. The lack of research into the ways in which minorities are being affected by climate, how they are coping with effects of climate change and the sustainability of the coping strategies only aggravate their disadvantage and susceptibility. For minorities to get the assistance they need, their circumstances must first be documented and acknowledged by academics, development and environmental NGOs, governments and intergovernmental organisations. Climate change is a serious issue affecting the world, but seldom does its impact on minorities get a mention, even though they are among the worst affected. Despite the high susceptibility of Zimbabwe to climatic fluctuations, very little research has been carried out on climate change, particularly on coping strategies of minority communities, most of whom occupy marginal, remote, hot, dry regions of the country. There is a serious lack of community-specific and household-specific data demonstrating their vulnerability. Communities, however, have been witnessing the gradual changes in climate over the years, and have been attempting to cope, albeit with mixed success. Few studies have tried to highlight and interrogate these coping strategies by communities for possible development and improvement, despite the fact that this is what has made them resilient

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83816*

**2. The study area**

#### *Beitbridge Minority Farmer Communities and Climate Change: Prospects for Sustainability DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83816*

more pronounced in the semi-arid tropics, the largest part of which is constituted by south-west Zimbabwe, the study area. Zimbabwe has an agricultural economy which is generally rain-fed. It has a rural population of more than 70% which depends on subsistence agriculture for livelihood [11]. This makes most sectors of the national economy sensitive to extreme changes or shifts to weather and climatic patterns.

The lack of research into the ways in which minorities are being affected by climate, how they are coping with effects of climate change and the sustainability of the coping strategies only aggravate their disadvantage and susceptibility. For minorities to get the assistance they need, their circumstances must first be documented and acknowledged by academics, development and environmental NGOs, governments and intergovernmental organisations. Climate change is a serious issue affecting the world, but seldom does its impact on minorities get a mention, even though they are among the worst affected. Despite the high susceptibility of Zimbabwe to climatic fluctuations, very little research has been carried out on climate change, particularly on coping strategies of minority communities, most of whom occupy marginal, remote, hot, dry regions of the country. There is a serious lack of community-specific and household-specific data demonstrating their vulnerability. Communities, however, have been witnessing the gradual changes in climate over the years, and have been attempting to cope, albeit with mixed success. Few studies have tried to highlight and interrogate these coping strategies by communities for possible development and improvement, despite the fact that this is what has made them resilient to this day. This study therefore aims to cover this gap in knowledge.
