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Paper Short Abstract:

This paper presents the methods used to investigate the effectiveness of permaculture approach/’indigenous’ farming model to address food insecurity, promote women empowerment and enhance sustainable livelihoods in peri-urban Zimbabwe, through an intervention known as "mapfihwa".

Paper Abstract:

This paper presents the methods used to investigate the effectiveness of permaculture approach/’indigenous’ farming model to address food insecurity, promote women empowerment and enhance sustainable livelihoods in peri-urban Zimbabwe, through an intervention known as "mapfihwa". The study is being carried out in Kutama community from 2024-2026. The intervention targets vulnerable women in agriculture. A quasi-experiment is utilized to determine the effectiveness of permaculture by comparing the experiment group (using organic farming methods) and the control group (using conventional farming methods) over a period of 36 months. The paper hypothesizes that undertaking permaculture in urban setting where individuals already have other streams of income, may contribute to improved livelihoods in addition to food security and the overall well-being of both the individual and the environment. The following 4 parameters are being used to measure household livelihood enhancement through permaculture: yield per given area over a given period of time, income received from the produce per given area within a given period, asset base change and household social mobility. A comparison is done from the two groups. While qualitative data collection methods are used to capture micro-level dynamics of permaculture, concurrently, limited descriptive methods are being used to capture data involving measurable parameters such as time, average income earned and quantities such as yields per area. The expected result of these activities is a scalable and replicable community-based permaculture model appropriate for meeting the needs of vulnerable women and children in Zimbabwe.