From Dry Fields To Smart Resilience: Climate-Smart Agriculture, Digital Early-Warning Systems And Household Food Security In Chivi District, Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper examines how climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and digital early-warning systems can jointly support household food-security resilience in Chivi District, a drought-prone area of south-eastern Zimbabwe dominated by rain-fed smallholder agriculture. Using a structured qualitative evidence synthesis with a district-centred case orientation, the study reviews 47 academic, policy and institutional sources published from 2021 to 14 September 2026. The study prioritises direct Chivi evidence, while using Zimbabwean, southern African, and wider African evidence comparatively where district-specific studies are limited. The synthesis identifies six interrelated themes concerning climate shocks, CSA adoption, small grains and water management, digital early warning, gender and institutional capacity, and integrated resilience. The findings indicate that CSA can strengthen food security when extension, inputs, finance, and markets support conservation agriculture, crop diversification, small grains, soil-fertility management, and water harvesting. However, digital early-warning information contributes to resilience only when it is timely, trusted, localised and translated into feasible action. Accordingly, the paper's principal contribution is an integrated smart-resilience framework centred on an information-to-action pathway: climate information can influence household food-security resilience only when farmers have viable adaptation options and the material, social and institutional capacity to act. The paper therefore treats digital information, agronomic adaptation, gender, household resources and local institutions as interdependent rather than separate interventions.