The project ‘Harnessing Appropriate-scale Farm mechanization In Zimbabwe’ (HAFIZ) aims to support investments by the Government and by the private sector in appropriate-scale farm mechanization in Zimbabwe, particularly around mechanized Pfumvudza, and transfer learnings to South Africa.
The objectives of the project ‘Addressing malnutrition with biofortified maize in Zimbabwe; from crop management to policy and consumers’ are 1) to evaluate the new pro-vitamin A (PVA) lines in Zimbabwe under different agronomic practices to gain knowledge on the combination of bio + agronomic fortification, 2) to determine the actual nutrient content of the new PVA lines in farmers' fields with different fertility status, and 3) to predict the dietary mineral supply at regional level with and without bio + agronomic fortification.
The objective of the ‘LIvestock Production System’ (LIPS) project is to improve productivity and climate relevance of livestock-based production systems in Zimbabwe’s agro-ecological regions IV and V through increased adoption of climate relevant innovations in livestock-based production systems, and increased capacity to implement surveillance and control of productivity diseases.
The ‘Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Farming Systems’ (SIFAZ) project aims at sustainably intensifying current smallholder farming systems affected by soil degradation, fertility decline and climate change with improved technologies and scaling approaches to increase productivity, income and facilitate commercial orientation of smallholder farmers while maintaining environmental resilience of the natural resource base for sustainable production in the targeted production systems.
The goal of the project ‘Validating Agro-ecological Control Options for Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith) in Zimbabwe’ is to reduce the negative impact of fall armyworm on food security and livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe, by giving them more control options, based on the principles of agro-ecological management.
The ‘Programme on Growth & Resilience’ (PROGRESS) was implemented from 2017 to 2020 in Eastern Zimbabwe. It used a multi-tiered approach to address key causes of rural household vulnerability, improving the absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacities of at least 20,000 households in Nyanga and Beitbridge Districts.
The objective of the ‘Enhancing Smallholder Wheat Productivity through Sustainable Intensification of Wheat-based Farming Systems in Rwanda and Zambia’ (SWPSI) project is to establish the potential of smallholder wheat production to increase food security and reduce wheat import bills in Rwanda and Zambia, and to draw lessons to inform wheat sector development for scaling-up of initiatives to increase wheat farm productivity.
The aim of the ‘The New Agrarian Change’ project, implemented from 2014 to 2016, was to use an integrated landscape approach to explore the livelihood and food security implications of land-use change and agrarian change processes in multi-functional landscapes, focusing on the experiences of six landscapes that exhibit various combinations of agricultural modification, productivity, changing forest cover or forest use, and integration with global commodity markets.
The aim of the ‘Farm Mechanisation and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification’ (FACASI) project, implemented from 2013 to 2017 in Kenya and in Tanzania, and from 2014 to 2019 in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, was to identify appropriate small-scale machines (in particular two-wheel tractors and their ancillary equipment) to improve farming practices (in particular crop establishment through direct seeding), and the commercial mechanisms needed to deliver these to smallholder farmers.
The aim of the ‘Improving Sustainable Productivity in Farming Systems and Enhanced Livelihoods through Adoption of Evergreen Agriculture in Eastern Africa’ (Trees4Food) project, implemented from 2012 to 2017, was to enhance food security for resource-poor rural people in Eastern Africa through research that underpins national programmes to scale up the use of trees within farming systems in Ethiopia and Rwanda and then scale out successes to relevant agro-ecological zones in Uganda and Burundi.