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Food insecurity is a devastating setback for vulnerable women in smallholder farming in Zimbabwe. Women’s low or limited adaptive capacity is caused by diverse factors, including , which include poverty, an unstable economy, political crisis and climate change. Adaptive strategies that differ from the conventional national and civic interventions to circumvent these factors have yielded subtle food security outcomes. As a result, there are growing calls for the adoption of social capital as an alternative grassroots-based adaptive strategy. This study examined the potential for and challenges faced by women who use social capital in adapting to food insecurity. Using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and key informant interviews it revealed that women in smallholder farming were utilising bonding, bridging and linking capital as a means of adaptation. These three types of capital were operationalised in four projects: Food For Assets (FFA), community gardening, the Boer goat project and Fushai. It emerged that three of the projects performed better in some wards but did not do well in others. Despite its potential, the Boer goat project was riddled with challenges, which emanated from the absence of bonding capital. I therefore conclude and recommend that social capital is critical for women in food insecurity adaptation. However, it needs to be buttressed by a harmonious relationship between the three forms of social capital and all stakeholders for sustainability to be realised.

The study investigated the contribution of SAT's agricultural intervention in ward 21 of Bikita in an attempt to improve food security to this drought prone area. The research was largely premised on qualitative methodology and unstructured interviews, focus group discussions and onsite observation were employed as techniques for data gathering. Using these methodological techniques, it was revealed that conservation farming brought by SAT was not smoothly appreciated by the intended beneficiaries. Regardless the fact that the majority of the farmers were given free farming inputs, they failed to fully embrace all the instructions like minimizing soil tillage, reliance on compost manure only to mention but a few. The farmers resisted total participation because the techniques were labor intensive and sometimes contradict their orthodox or indigenous farming techniques. This has resulted in the emergence of an antagonistic relationship between SAT officials and the local farmers on the best method of farming which may improve food security. Also the research revealed that too much reliance on compost manure has created environmental challenges with fears of its depletion since the area was already overpopulated. This led to the emergence of conflicts between the participants, non-participants, owners and non-owners of domestic animals because the forage was under threat. All these events were analyzed using Darendorf's (1959)'s Conflict theory which explains the potential of conflicts outbreak between two or more groups interacting. This can be best explained with the conflicts which existed between the locals on the environment and also between SAT and the locals on the way forward about farming. It was concluded that there was a need for encompassing approach where all stakeholders should sit down together and consider the favorable conditions to make the programme acceptable, successful and sustainable.