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The livelihoods of the majority of people in semiarid areas of developing nations are based on rain-fed agriculture. In the wake of climate variability and change, communities in these regions are the most vulnerable because of their limited capacities to adapt to environmental changes. Smallholder farmers in the study area, Lower Gweru in central Zimbabwe, ascertain that they have observed changes in some rainfall and temperature patterns. These changes include higher temperatures, an increased number of seasons without enough rainfall, and an increased frequency of droughts and lengths of dry spells. The aim of this study was to find out whether farmers’ perceptions are supported by mean and extreme event trends in observed historical climate data. Gweru Thornhill meteorological data were analyzed for significant trends. The analysis showed that temperatures are increasing significantly, consistent with farmers’ observations that temperatures are getting hotter. This study revealed that farmer perceptions on rainfall were not consistent with historical climatic trends. Thus, farmers in the Lower Gweru area may not be a very reliable source of long-term rainfall trends.

Quinoa is one of the ancestral grains now considered as the “superfoods of the future” due to their characteristics as functional foods with great environmental adaptability. The Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund has introduced quinoa in Zimbabwe to increase resilience of farming systems in light of environmental shocks. In order to improve adoption of the crop, it is important to understand the combined effects of socio‐demographic variables on consumer perceptions of the crop. However, there is limited literature on the combined effects of socio‐demographic variables on quinoa health and nutritional benefits in Zimbabwe. In this study, we used principle component analysis to identify consumers' perception about health and nutritional benefits of quinoa in Gweru Urban District, Gweru, Zimbabwe. A questionnaire was designed and applied to 200 participants. However, only 167 forms were valid for analysis. Age, education, and income level are main factors that determine consumer perceptions on health and nutritional claims. The results indicate that quinoa need to be promoted a as a crop that goes beyond food and income security by placing additional emphasis on health and nutritional aspects. This is very insightful in light of the need to improve the uptake of the crop by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. However, the use of self‐reporting survey method has received criticism for failing to get detailed information on perceptions of individuals. These findings could be handy to promote quinoa as a climate smart crop with additional health and nutritional benefits. This is one of the novel research studies exploring the motives of Zimbabwean consumers towards quinoa as a functional food crop. The work also contributes to knowledge on consumer food preferences.

In this paper, the influence of climate variability and change on the environment was studied over southern Africa using ground‐based and remotely sensed data. A time series analysis of rainfall and temperature anomalies indicated that there was a high rainfall and temperature variability in the region. The influence of global teleconnections on rainfall patterns over southern Africa showed that in some areas there was a spatial variation in their strength, increasing from west to east. Maps of NDVI, from 1982 to 2004, showed that changes in vegetation cover were more apparent during the dry season than during the wet season. The study also revealed that climate variability and change are linked to decreasing rainfall and hence, decreasing regional water resources and biodiversity and increasing environmental degradation. With the regional population expected increase, this depletion of resources poses the greatest regional environmental challenge to humankind.