Jenna Davis, MEsc

Year: 
2020

Graduate School:
Forestry and Environmental Studies

Current Position:
Agroforester-in-Residence

Past Position(s):
Global Food Fellow (2019)

More about Jenna’s global food fellowship:
Location: Zambia

Research questions: In what ways to climate change perceptions vary between two rainfall regions within Zambia? How and to what degree might climate change perceptions and understandings influence the adoption of adaptive agricultural practices in subsistence farming communities? What narratives of climate change are smallholder farmers receiving from government and development agencies and how do they influence the adoption of climate resilient agriculture?

Project description: The goal of my project this summer was to gain a deeper understanding of how smallholder farmers are perceiving and understanding changes in their local environments (likely) caused by climate change. This involved engaging with community members through focus group discussions and individual household survey interviews. Overall, the study took place between two communities in Southern Province, a low rainfall area, and two communities in Northern Province, a high rainfall region.

Notable fellowship moment: One of my favorite moments during my fellowship was being invited to visit a malende in Southern Province. In Tonga-Gwembe culture the malende is a sacred forest shrine where community members go at the beginning of rainy season to appeal to ancestral spirits for rain, especially in times of drought. Walking through the forest was a spiritual experience and left me feeling humbled and grateful to the community for inviting me into their hallowed space.

Favorite meal: Ifisashi and Nshima

New questions arising from Jenna’s research: How have agricultural input subsidy programs eroded adaptive capacities of smallholder farmers (especially in an era of acute climate change)? How have development approaches such as ‘farming as a business’ or ‘farming God’s way’ affected social relations in farming communities and farmers’ relationships with their crops?

A few other (academic and non-academic) interests: Long bike rides, deeply questioning global development, agroforestry/planting trees, learning about the intersections of social justice and agricultural systems, road trips, calling out toxic masculinity, watching sunsets, being mindful of my positionality, backpacking, learning new recipes (for tearing down the patriarchy).