Covid-19 in Zimbabwe: Implications for the Commercial Agricultural Sector

COVID-19 (coronavirus disease), a highly infectious respiratory disease, emerged in 2019 in Wuhan City of Hubei Province, China. The pandemic has ravaged humanity and led to severe implications on the global economy. Zimbabwe, as part of the global community and her commercial agricultural sector in particular, was not spared from the high infectivity of the coronavirus and the associated disastrous impact of the pandemic. The aim of this chapter is to examine the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the commercial agricultural sector of Zimbabwe. The methods used in this chapter involve extraction and analysis of data from publicly available data from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (ZIMSTATS). The data extracted included cumulative cases of COVID-19 and agricultural output statistics prior and during the pandemic. To augment secondary data, a structured questionnaire was administered to prominent commercial famers (identified by the Agricultural Extension Workers) in each of the 61 districts of Zimbabwe, through phone calls or emails, in adherence to the COVID-19 regulations of minimizing close contact to reduce transmission. Apart from the analysis of such data, there is also a critical review of literature from published resources. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.

Innovative community ecotourism coping and recovery strategies to COVID-19 pandemic shocks: the case of Mahenye. (Special Issue: COVID-19 impacts on tourism: Southern Africa's experiences.)

The sustainability of community ecotourism under the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) in Zimbabwe is under stress due to shocks including the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The pandemic has potential to impede the efforts the community ecotourism sector has been making towards the attainment of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The specific objectives of the research were to: (i) document the shocks emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic on the Mahenye community ecotourism project and (ii) suggest possible coping and recovery strategies to the COVID-19 pandemic shocks at the Mahenye community ecotourism project. Qualitative methods were adopted encompassing data mining, expert opinion and key informant interviews. The overall impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Mahenye ecotourism elements have been negative. The present research results could enable ecotourism to be sustainable in the face of shocks emanating from infectious pandemics like COVID-19 and future others.