期刊名称：The Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa (JSDA)
电子版ISSN：1520-5509
出版年度：2013
卷号：15
期号：1
出版社：Institute of Sustainable Development in Africa
摘要：For agriculture to develop in a sustainable way in Zimbabwe, there a need to reclassify its agro-ecological zones. The current zones developed in the 60s have become redundant, outdated and cannot be used to plan sustainable agriculture. This is because of climate change and variability and which has shifted previously derived zones and the development of new tools and technology that are more effective in agro -ecological zonation. This paper was therefore aimed at making a critical review of the current agro-ecological zones and justifies the need for a reclassification of these zones using Masvingo province as a case in point. The paper examines the methods, the shortcomings of the current classification and the expected benefits of the reclassified agro-ecological zones. A holistic approach was recommended in the re-classification attempt and incorporated factors such as climate and bio-climatic features, physiographic features, edaphic characteristics, use of geospatial technologies and length of the growing season. Among the expected benefits of the new agro-ecological zones are improved land use planning and management, increase in agricultural productivity, development of appropriate agro-technologies transferrable across similar zones and accurate research, extensio n services and sustainable development of Zimbabwe's agricultural sector. This paper was meant to culminate in the derivation of new boundaries of agro-ecological zones in Masvingo Province, at a finer scale and it is hoped similar techniques could be applied at national scale and beyond
关键词：Agro-ecological; climate change; zonation; Masvingo; input parameters; Zimbabwe and sustainab le ;development
