Climate Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

HIMZ Climate-Smart Goat Value Chain Addition is a very active social enterprise implemented in Namwala District, Zambia. The project responds to repeated climate shocks in the form of droughts and floods causing devastating losses in the livestock sector and undermining rural incomes and food security.

Building on a successful pilot, the initiative promotes goat production as a lower-methane alternative to cattle, with hydroponic fodder systems, rainwater harvesting, and enhanced pasture management in an attempt to curb emissions from ruminant systems. This will be complemented with two complete 100-goat fattening cycles, with climate-smart feeding, veterinary care, and weight monitoring integrated.

Value addition is through local processing of fresh and smoked goat meat and structured market linkages to butcheries, restaurants, and households to raise the farmer incomes and enterprise profitability. Organic compost from manure provides an additional income stream as nutrient loops are closed. we are also looking at how we can use the goat skin in an environmentally friendly manner to produce leather, 

The initiative directly empowers small-scale farmers while demonstrating a financially viable, scalable, and replicable model of climate-resilient livestock production. Revenues from meat and compost sales are reinvested to sustain future cycles beyond grant support.

How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

['Reduces GHGs (e.g., projects that reduce sources of GHGs, such as through efficiency or other changes in consumption)', 'Removes/stores GHGs (e.g., projects that capture, sequester, or otherwise enhance the "sinks" that accumulate and store GHGs)']

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

The HIMZ Climate-Smart Goat Value Chain Addition Project aimed to engage groups that might normally be marginalized in climate change movements, such as women, youth, climate change-vulnerable families, and older males, who might also be marginalized based on patriarchal society ideals. Women-headed and youth-managed farming units were the main beneficiaries of capacity and market development, which would increase their resilience and capacity and ability to engage with climate-smart goat rearing practices. Older males, highly esteemed and normally marginalized by new technology, were also targeted with support and interventions that would allow technology transfer among generations.

In HIMZ, these groups are included in leadership and operations: women participate in important technical and market positions, youth assist with farm operations and farm site monitoring on a daily basis, while elderly men are involved in an advisory role to enable greater inclusion of marginalized groups in project planning for better climate equity outcomes.