Land Resettlement Programme Research Articles

New Scholarship

New Scholarship

'Tobacco Thrives, but the Environment Cries': The Sustainability of Livelihoods from Small-Scale Tobacco Growing in Zimbabwe, 2000-2017

Abstract This study analyses the environmental consequences of the introduction in 2000 of the volatile Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) and the sustainability of livelihoods among small-scale African tobacco-farmers following the reform programme. Tobacco was significant in the colonial cash economy and remains a key cash crop in post-colonial Zimbabwe since 1980. Much of the extant tobacco literature focuses on white-settler tobacco farming in colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe. This study adds to and builds upon an emerging scholarship on African small-scale tobacco producers. Some of the scholars studied the institutional history of tobacco growing and the associated tobacco research and others focused on marketing boards. Geist's work is particularly significant for this study because it examines the environmental impacts of tobacco growing in the developing world. This paper focuses on smallholder flue-cured tobacco growing in Zimbabwe. It observes that the post-independence government made concerted efforts to promote small-scale tobacco-farming through the land resettlement programme and the provision of incentives for increasing agricultural output as well as accelerated black farmers' involvement in the growing of commercial crops, notably tobacco and cotton. The study explores links between the FTLRP and the increase in smallholder tobacco growers and the resulting ecological and livelihood impacts. While tobacco and some tobacco growers appeared to thrive, the environment suffered. Using qualitative and quantitative research approaches and methods like interviews, direct observation, published secondary material, contemporary newspapers and Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) resources, the paper demonstrates that the FTLRP marked the drive to change livelihoods among Zimbabwean farmers.

Livestock livelihoods compromised: the dilemma of the Fast Track Land Reform and Resettlement Programme in Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe

This article attempts to unravel the rubric of livestock rearing in Southern Matabeleland in the aftermath of the Fast Track Land Reform and Resettlement Programme (FTLRRP). It also shows how livestock rearing has been placed high in livelihood rankings in this region. The article is based on a detailed ethnographic study of the impact of the FTLRRP in the decade 2000 to 2010 in Gwanda and Umzingwane districts, and is an extract of my PHD thesis entitled ‘Visible hectares, Vanishing livelihoods’. The broad argument of the thesis is that the land reform programme has achieved change of commercial land ownership patterns from ‘white’ to ‘black’ Zimbabweans. The programme however has not coupled that with the support necessary to improve the livelihoods of the majority of people in the region. One of the impediments is that the state-crafted ‘one size fits all’ resettlement model failed to take cognisance of the socio-economic and ecological conditions of different provinces in the country. Hence the argument in this article is that the FTLRRP could have improved livelihoods of people in this region if livestock rearing was given priority and support by the state.

Explaining productivity differences between beneficiaries of Zimbabwe's Fast Track Land Reform Programme and communal farmers

ABSTRACT In the year 2000 the government of Zimbabwe launched the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) as part of its on-going land reform and resettlement programme. The main premise of the programme is to address the racially skewed land distribution pattern inherited at independence in 1980. While the programme has been accompanied by an overall reduction in agricultural production which has created widespread food insecurity throughout the country, empirical research on the impact of the programme on the agricultural productivity of its beneficiaries has been limited. This paper uses data on beneficiaries of the programme and a control group of communal farmers to (i) investigate the presence of agricultural productivity differences between beneficiaries and communal farmers, and (ii) examine differences in chemical fertiliser use as a possible source of these differences. The results suggest that FTLRP beneficiaries gain a productivity advantage not only from the fact that they use more fertiliser per hectare, but also from attaining a higher rate of return from its use.

Mining with a ‘Vuvuzela’: reconfiguring artisanal mining in Southern Zimbabwe and its implications to rural livelihoods

The rural landscape of Zimbabwe has dramatically changed in the last decade. Zimbabwe inherited a racially biased land ownership pattern at independence in 1980 and 20 years on efforts by the state to address the colonial land imbalances have been largely unsuccessful. In 2000 the Zimbabwe government embarked on a controversial rapid land redistribution exercise that saw vast tracts of land previously owned by white commercial farmers taken over and distributed to mostly black Zimbabweans. Some authors have argued that there is no single story of the Fast Track Land Reform and Resettlement programme because of the myths and realities spread by the media. It is important to note that what happened in one province might not be similar to the other. Rural dwellers in the countryside had for years depended on agrarian livelihoods and the fact that more land had been availed by the state meant better livelihoods. However, this article argues that in spite of a widened horizon to pursue agrarian activities many people have actually drifted away from on-farm to off-farm livelihoods. This is true in the case of southern Zimbabwe where a large number of rural dwellers have chosen artisanal gold mining as a pathway in realising a livelihood. This article therefore focuses on the expansion of artisanal gold mining in southern Zimbabwe; particularly in southern Matabeleland. Using fieldwork as a method of data gathering, the article unravels the development of artisanal mining in this region and how it has been reconfigured after the hosting of the Soccer World Cup in South Africa 2010. In particular it shows how the metal detector technology (the Vuvuzela) availed by the hosting of the Soccer World Cup has found its way to the region and changed the gold panning process. Conclusions drawn from a detailed PhD study revealed that a significant number of southern Zimbabwe gold panners have adopted the metal detector technology as a way of expanding their trade.

NAMIBIA: Five‐Year Land Resettlement Programme

Africa Research Bulletin: Economic, Financial and Technical SeriesVolume 44, Issue 9 p. 17550B-17550C NAMIBIA: Five-Year Land Resettlement Programme First published: 01 November 2007 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6346.2007.01198.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume44, Issue9November 2007Pages 17550B-17550C RelatedInformation

Land Crisis in Zimbabwe

Earlier this year, I received a small grant from the Edinburgh University Development Trust Fund to determine the feasibility of formulating a major research project exploring the religious dimensions within the recent land resettlement programme in Zimbabwe. Since spirit mediums had played such an important role in the first Shona uprising in 1896–97 against colonial occu¬pation (the so-called First Chimurenga) (Parsons, 1985: 50-51) and again in the war of liberation between 1972 and 1979 (the Second Chimurenga) (Lan, 1985), I suspected that these central points of contact between the spirit world and the living communities would be affecting the sometimes militant invasions of white commercial farms that began sporadically in 1998, but became systematic after the constitutional referendum of February 2000. Under the terms of the grant, I went with my colleague, Tabona Shoko of the University of Zimbabwe, in July and August 2004, to two regions of Zimbabwe: Mount Darwin in the northeast, where recent activities by war veterans and spirit mediums had been reported, and to the Mberengwa District, where land resettlement programmes have been widespread. This article reports on my preliminary findings in Mount Darwin, where I sought to determine if evidence could be found to link the role of Traditional Religion, particularly through spirit mediums, to the current land redistribution programme, and, if so, whether increasing levels of political intolerance within Zimbabwean society could be blamed, in part at least, on these customary beliefs and practices

The challenge of integration in the implementation of Zimbabwe’s new water policy: case study of the catchment level institutions surrounding the Pungwe–Mutare water supply project

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) is viewed by policy makers and practitioners as facilitating the achievement of a balance between water resource use and resource protection, and the resolution of water-related conflicts. The IWRM approach has found particular use in the new water policies of Southern African countries such as Zimbabwe, where water scarcity, after the land question, is perceived to be a major threat to political, economic, social, military and environmental security. Ultimately, IWRM is seen as providing a framework towards ensuring broader security at the local, national, regional and global levels. However, the pilot phase implementation of the new water policy in the various regional countries has revealed that although the legal and institutional frameworks have been put in place, the implementation of the IWRM approach has tended to be problematic (J. Latham, 2001; GTZ, 2000; Leestemaker, 2000; Savenige and van der Zaag, 2000; Sithole, 2000).This paper adopts a case study approach and empirically examines the institutional challenges of implementing the IWRM approach in the post-pilot phase of Zimbabwe’s new water policy. The focus is mainly on the institutional arrangements surrounding the Pungwe–Mutare Water Supply Project located within the Save Catchment Area in Eastern Zimbabwe. The major findings of the study are that, while there persist some problems associated with the traditional management approach, there have also emerged new challenges to IWRM. These mainly relate to the transaction costs of the water sector reforms, institutional resilience, stakeholder participation, and the achievement of the desired outcomes. There have also been problems emanating from unexpected political developments at the local and national levels, particularly with regard to the government’s “fast track” land resettlement programme. The paper concludes that there is a need for a more rigorous effort towards integrating the management of water resources by the catchment level institutions.

Economies of size in sugar cane production in KwaZulu‐Natal

This article examines how efficiency of resource use on sugar cane farms varies with the size of a farm business, and what implications variations in performance may hold for the reallocation of resources between size‐groups in the pursuit of land redistribution. A non‐parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) research procedure is employed to analyse farm‐size efficiency using inputs valued at opportunity cost. Results indicate that sugar cane farms producing less than 500 tons of cane exhibit substantial economies of size, and require significantly more resources to produce a rand's worth of output than farms producing more than 2 500 tons of cane. Therefore, if commercial farms are subdivided in the land resettlement programme, significant loss of efficiency may occur if the resettled farms produce less than 500 tons. Finally, results of an econometric model suggest significant links between scale efficiency and farmers’ education, managerial adeptness, training, age, and the size of farm holdings.

The government must not dictate’: rural‐urban migrants’ perceptions of Zimbabwe's land resettlement programme

Since its inception in 1980 Zimbabwe's land resettlement programme has been marked by very varied performance and keen debate. There have been high hopes, deep disappointment, false starts (and stops), policy swings and controversy. In the 1990s analyses of the programme by both supporters and critics of land reform have generally been negative. Yet there is evidence that resettled people themselves have made real welfare and income gains. Strong support for the programme was also expressed by a large sample of rural‐urban migrants in Harare in 1994. Their views, reported in this article, showed an appreciation of most aspects of the academic and policy debates, but clearly also tended towards the perception that redistribution of land in Zimbabwe is a moral issue. Government insistence on commercially‐oriented production on resettlement schemes was perceived as unwarranted interference.

Institutions, Projects and Farmers – Some Issues Arising from the Land Resettlement Programme in Zimbabwe

The land resettlement programme in Zimbabwe was undertaken not just as a land redistribution exercise but as a carefully planned and managed development programme. Despite the problems of adjusting government institutions to independence, an organisational framework was successfully established to plan and implement resettlement. This owed much to the fact that implementing resettlement was consistent with each institution′s objectives. On the other hand, the early economic success of the programme has become increasingly jeopardised as the institutions′ requirement for programme operation has not been matched by that for planning and implementation. An understanding of the organisational objectives of individual institutions can go some way to explain this. The experience of resettlement in Zimbabwe may not be unique and the experience will add to the increased emphasis being given in agricultural development to the establishment of appropriate farmer‐oriented institutions at the local level.

Economic adjustment and current trends in child survival: the case of Zimbabwe

The relationship between health and welfare policies and economic performance and the efficacy of economic adjustment measures in Zimbabwe since independence are examined along with the accompanying changes in infant and young child health. As a result of the successful struggle for independence certain economic measures and social reforms have been instituted and these have had a positive influence on health. The most important include the setting of minimum wages for all categories of labor food subsidies the land resettlement program expanded education water development and drought relief programs. The management and delivery of health care; in line with the new primary health care (PHC) approach has been transformed slowly. The curative and preventive services have been integrated in provincial and district health team structures accountable both to higher levels of the health structure and to the local government structures at the level of service. Active steps have been taken to reform medical education to make the training of physicians more relevant to the needs of Zimbabwe. Some of the changes introduced since independence include: free health care; hospital and rural health center building program; the Zimbabwe expanded program on immunization (ZEPI); diarrheal disease control program (DDCP); a national nutrition program; a program of child spacing; and a national village health worker program. All these and other programs call for expansion of government expenditures. A table shows how the vote allocations and the actual expenditure of the Ministry of Health changed over the period. Due to the scarcity of data it is difficult to be anything but speculative regarding the impact of the health sector interventions on infant and child mortality and morbidity. Yet it is likely that certain programs -- particularly ZEPI and DDCP - have had and continue to have a rapid positive impact on child survival. Any significant impact on deaths resulting from respiratory infections low birth weight and other neonatal causes as well as deaths resulting either directly or indirectly from malnutrition would require improvements in nutritional status of both children and mothers as well as reductions in levels of crowding and further improvement in access to health care. The primary effect on the health sector of the recession period has been to restrict the Ministry of Healths ability to finance services.

Agricultural transformation in Zimbabwe: Lessons for South Africa after apartheid

When Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, reversing historical inequalities became a primary rural development objective. Growth, it was argued, must also generate greater equity. As part of their overall plan, sophisticated agricultural institutions were made available to black farmers and a land resettlement program enacted. Due to constitutional constraints, international pressure, fears about restructuring the economy too rapidly, and a class alliance between white farmers and an emerging black bourgeoisie, limited highveld land was reallocated and large-scale commercial farmers maintained their historical privileges. The only significant change in the subsector was increased capital intensity of production. Small-scale black farmers with access to good land and productive resources have responded remarkably to new production opportunities. In only 7 years, black production of maize and cotton more than doubled and marketed contributions rose from less than 10% to approximately half of national sales. The pattern of agricultural development, however, is spatially and socially limited. New forms of uneven rural development are emerging. The majority of rural blacks still have inadequate land and off-farm income resources to insure subsistence levels of consumption on an annual basis. The rural crisis persists. In South Africa, a Zimbabwe-type small farm development strategy would help a minority of households who are already relatively privileged in terms of access of land, agricultural capital and off-farm income resources. To achieve rural growth and equity, new forms of social organization in farming must be developed concurrent with a major land redistribution program. Zimbabwe's strategy has successfully generated short-term growth but cannot fulfill longer-term rural development objectives.

Changing patterns of population distribution in Zimbabwe.

"This paper critically evaluates the causes and consequences of changes in population distribution in Zimbabwe during the colonial period and since independence in 1980. Five main aspects of population geography are examined. Firstly...the history of tenure policies is outlined. Secondly, the distribution of the African population as revealed in the 1982 census is described and major changes between the census years of 1962, 1969, and 1982 are discussed. Thirdly, changing patterns of settlement and land use within the peasant farming areas (Communal Lands) are examined in the context of increasing population pressures. Fourthly, trends in the...urbanisation of the African population are described. Fifthly, post-independence development policies directed at effecting changes in the distribution of population are discussed with particular reference to the land resettlement programme."

New Land Resettlement Program for Mindanao

Other| March 15 1939 New Land Resettlement Program for Mindanao Lawrence H. Odell Lawrence H. Odell Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1939) 8 (6): 69–70. https://doi.org/10.2307/3023295 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Lawrence H. Odell; New Land Resettlement Program for Mindanao. Far Eastern Survey 15 March 1939; 8 (6): 69–70. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3023295 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentAsian Survey Search This content is only available via PDF. Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

New Land Resettlement Program for Mindanao

New Land Resettlement Program for Mindanao