Most of the huge ranches that took up much of Matobo district outside the crowded communal areas to the north were divided up during land reform. As in other areas there were medium-scale farms (A2 and so-called self-contained (SC)), aimed … Continue reading → …
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ZimbabweLand
From maize to horticulture, but challenges of succession ahead in Masvingo province land reform sites, Zimbabwe
Our Masvingo province A1 sites – Wondedzo and Sanangwe near Masvingo town and Clare and Lonely A near Chatsworth in Gutu – are classic dryland maize growing areas. In good years, many tonnes of surplus are produced for sale or … Continue reading → …
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Accumulating through tobacco: the case of Mvurwi in Zimbabwe
Mvurwi area is in Mazowe district, some 100km north of Harare. It is a high potential area where tobacco production has expanded dramatically since land reform thanks in large part to the support from multiple contracting companies operating in the … Continue reading → …
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Accumulating and investing: trajectories of change in Zimbabwe’s land reform areas
A central question for our new research exploring changes in livelihoods 25 years after land reform is what are the trajectories of accumulation – or indeed the opposite? In other words, how well have those who got land following the … Continue reading → …
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Reflecting on ‘success’ in smallholder farming in Zimbabwe
This blog offers a compilation of blogs published over the past weeks, which have offered a reflection on how local people understand ‘success’ and its changes over time especially in the period since the 2000 land reform. We have worked … Continue reading → …
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What does ‘success’ look like in Zimbabwe’s communal areas, and how does this compare with land reform areas?
The previous blog series explored ‘success’ in A1 areas across our sites in Mazowe, Gutu, Masvingo and Matobo districts. How does this compare with local perceptions of success in communal areas? This is an important question as most people in … Continue reading → …
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The dynamics of ‘success’ in A1 land reform areas of Zimbabwe
There are many different versions of ‘success’ in Zimbabwe’s A1 land reform areas as we found out across 11 different ‘success ranking’ exercises in our sites in Mazowe, Gutu, Masvingo and Matobo districts. A total of 208 people (113 men, … Continue reading → …
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Former farm workers in Mvurwi: structural constraints on success
Former farm workers living in compounds on resettlement farms in Mvurwi are some of the most marginalised people across the land reform farms. ‘Success’ is limited by a set of major structural constraints that individuals cannot overcome by themselves. We … Continue reading → …
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Understanding success in the villagised land reform farms in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe
Villagised farms, with allocated homestead areas and fields and common grazing, are the most common type of land reform farm across the country, including in Masvingo province. We have three such case study sites – Lonely Farm (Gutu), Wondedzo Wares … Continue reading → …
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Negotiating demographic change: sustaining land reform success in Masvingo, Zimbabwe
The challenges of managing generational change within farm households was highlighted by the A1 self-contained land reform sites in Masvingo province. Here we have two such sites – Clare farm in Gutu district and Wondedzo extension in Masvingo district. In … Continue reading → …
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