Conceptualizing capacity building in the context of agriculture among smallholder farmers: The case of Hurungwe District, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The widely recognition of the importance of capacity building (CB) towards the attainment of developmental objectives at global, regional, national and community levels especially in developing countries, has attracted the attention of several scholars and practitioners across different disciplines. This requires to come up with a best-fitting and holistic conceptual framework to guide capacity-building interventions both in theory and practice. Contextualized conceptual framework tailor-made to address real and specific issues in the targeted communities is urgently required. Nevertheless, information about a holistic conceptual framework to guide CB particularly in the Global South is scant in the literature because most of the CB initiatives are spearheaded by the development agents of the North. However, the globalization of Western CB paradigms is not materializing in some parts of the world, especially in the Global South. In order to bridge this gap, this paper aims to contribute to the development of a holistic conceptual framework for CB in the context of agriculture among smallholder farmers in Hurungwe through the systematic review of related literature. The paper suggests community capacity mapping framework (CCMF) to guide agricultural CB initiatives in Hurungwe because it shows related variables in a clear and simplified way.