Agroecology and Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study of Farming Systems in Chirumhanzu District, Zimbabwe

Agroecology, grounded in indigenous knowledge, provides a transformative pathway for climate resilience among smallholder farmers. This chapter examines how farmers in Chirumhanzu District, Zimbabwe, use intergenerational ecological knowledge and culturally embedded practices to address climate change. Based on focus group discussions with 100 smallholder farmers, strategies such as intercropping, indigenous seeds, mulching, organic soil regeneration, and farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange emerge as adaptive responses shaped by experience and communal land stewardship. Farmers have restored degraded landscapes with low-cost, culturally informed methods, like mulching and placing stones to reduce runoff, exemplifying resilience rooted in indigenous knowledge. These practices strengthen communities, reduce climate vulnerability, and highlight indigenous innovation. Adoption is limited by low institutional recognition, inadequate support, and weak policy integration. The chapter advocates positioning indigenous knowledge as foundational, promoting farmer-led innovation, local knowledge investment, and inclusive partnerships among communities, researchers, NGOs, and policymakers to advance climate justice through epistemological pluralism.