What can we learn from the experiences of land reform beneficiaries of the 1980s that can inform the future of A1 farms? It is over 40 years since the first round of post-Independence resettlement and, as previous blogs in this series have shown, there have been some distinct phases over time, from early establishment and growth through on-farm production to declines due to reduced financing and state support from the early 1990s to the challenges of generational transition being met over the last 25 or so years.
While the post-2000 A1 land reform areas did not receive anything like the support offered to the 1980s resettlement areas, we have certainly seen a period of sustained accumulation from below among many households, driven by agricultural production, but also off-farm income earning. In the 1980s, off-farm work was officially disallowed as the aim was to create a class of well-trained smallholder farmers who were self-sufficient. Not surprisingly, this was not possible and off-farm work expanded from the late 1980s. But in the post-2000 land reform areas, off-farm work has always been critical, alongside remittances increasingly from the diaspora, This has compensated to some extent for the lack of external state or donor support in the post-2000 land reform areas.
Where the experiences of old and (now not so) new resettlements converge most is around the challenge of generational transition. As noted before, in the post-1980s old resettlements it is those households that have managed this transition successfully that have been able to sustain their ‘success’ or even improve it. The original household heads of the 1980s resettlement areas are around 20 years older (those still living are in the 70s and 80s) than their original occupiers of the post-2000s A1 land reform areas.
In this blog, we will examine how settlers in an old resettlement area have managed generational transition and how this contrasts with the experiences in A1 areas. Having first settled in the mid-1980s, they have 20 years more experience of managing the transition compared to the A1 areas. What trajectories have emerged as land gets transferred across the generations? Can the experience from the 1980s resettlements inform what might happened in the A1 post-2000 land reform areas?
Managing generational transition in Chavarove old resettlement area
In our study site of Chavarove old resettlement in Gutu district, a significant proportion of original farmers have died or are now old and too frail to farm. In the case of those male household heads who have deceased, farms have now been transferred to younger sons or widows, but subdivisions of the main arable field have been common.
There has as a result been considerable population growth across the three villages. The number of households has almost doubled, from 53 in 1985 to 105 in 2026. A traditional patriarchal/patrilocal land allocation is evident. As their male children reach adulthood, the original land reform beneficiaries took a decision to settle their adult sons in the resettlement area. This was done in consultation with a councillor in 2008, and again in 2013 (around election times). The children were allocated 100 m x 50 m stands (although some have ended their stands to one ha). However, they were not allocated the larger outfields. Instead, they share arable land with their parents. In most cases, these children were allocated land along the boundary with troublesome communal area or post-2000 A1 neighbours as a strategy to block them from grazing their cattle and harvesting fuelwood or poles.
In most cases, the young sons (not so young any more – most are in their 40s and 50s) have taken over their parents’ homesteads. While some are working away, many have returned home. However, they are using the rural home as a ‘base’ where they pursue a diversified livelihood, combining farming and local off-farm activities such as building, informal transport business (mushikashika), trading and so on.
However, this is highly gendered with women staying at home looking after the kids and farming, while husbands are highly mobile. In other words, this next generation of farmers are not tied to the land in the same way as their parents were in the past. What is also clear is that many main crop fields now lie fallow as this new generation of farmers concentrate on small areas such as the ‘stand’ or ‘vleis’.
The following cases highlight the experiences of the adult children of original land reform beneficiaries.
Inheriting parents’ homestead
TM, Keswick: I was born in 1976, and I went to school up to Form 4. I currently work as a farm manager at a nearby A2 farm, where we engage in cattle ranching. My parents acquired this plot in 1985. We came from Mataruse area. I was born in a family of seven children (two girls and five girls), and I am the last-born son. My father passed away in 2009, while my mother passed away in 2020. As the last-born son, I then inherited my parents’ homestead. My older brother (b. 1968) acquired his own A1 plot in Ingoga farm. We belonged to Apostles church, and my father had two wives. In fact, he married the younger wife when we were already established here. Upon his death, there were some family wrangles, and my father’s second wife approached the local leadership and was allocated her own residential stand nearby. My half-brothers live with their mother, but we agreed that we will all share our father’s 5ha crop field if we want to farm. Currently, the crop field is lying idle as I concentrate on the ‘stand’. My father’s second wife is also cultivating on her own stand. The challenge is that the crop field is too far, plus cattle from nearby communal areas destroy the cattle.
IM, Surati: I was born in 1969 in a family of five boys and one girl. However, three of my siblings passed away. My younger brother (b. 1975) operates a car wash business in Harare and lives there. He doesn’t like farming and rural life in general, and I do not know whether he will return here. His wife doesn’t like farming and rural life at all. My sister lives in Kwekwe and does not have rural plot. My father acquired this plot in 1985. At the time, he was employed as a mine worker at Zoma, but had been deserted by the white mine-owner. Consequently, Mrs Shuvai Mahofa, the then MP of Gutu helped him to gain access to this land. Unfortunately, my father then passed away in 1989. My mother passed away in 2023. Following the death of my mother, I then inherited the farm. I have access to 5ha of arable land, but I no longer cultivate it because of lack of inputs and draft power. I went to school up to form 4. After completing form 4, I worked as a surveyor in a mine in Kwekwe, where I worked until in 2023 when returned home. Currently, I am a fulltime farmer. I currently cultivate 1.5ha, consisting of the stand and 0.5ha of bani. The main crop field lies fallow as I do not have adequate inputs. In the 1980s, my parents used to get loans to buy inputs from AFC but I no longer have access to such a loan facility. When my brother decides to return home one day, I will definitely share the land with him.
Children getting their own stands
TD, Ency: I was born in 1974 in Muchekayaora area, and went to school up to Form 4. After completing form 4, I then pursued a tailoring course. Upon completion, I then worked as a tailor in Harare, where I met my late husband who was also a tailor by profession. My late husband was born in 1973, but passed away in 2014. His parents acquired land here in 1985. They came from Mataruse area in Gutu. I got married to my husband in 2000. We lived with my parents-in-laws at their home for a while as subdivisions were not allowed in the resettlement area. In 2008, under the instruction of the then councillor Mrs G and extension officer M, a programme to allocate married children of land reform beneficiaries was kick started. This is when we took the opportunity to also gain access to our own land to build a homestead. We were allocated 50m x 50m plots for residential purposes, and we were told that will would cultivate at our parents’ main crop fields. I have access to 1ha of land at my parents-in-law’s outfield, but it’s lying idle because of lack of inputs and the fact that cattle from nearby communal areas destroy our crops as the field is not fenced. In addition, the soil is now infertile. I therefore concentrate on the stand which I have now extended to 1ha. I put all my resources and effort on the stand now. I use anthill, leaf litter and manure to ‘feed’ my soils. When it rains well, I harvest up to 3 tonnes of maize, and sell 2 tonnes. In the past, I used to sell to GMB, but nowadays I sell to traders because of delays in payment. I depend on farming. Each year, I just pray that it rains. I currently have 5 cattle. When my husband passed away, our children were still very young but I have managed to send them all to school. My first-born daughter (b. 2000) has a diploma in accounting, but is engaging in kungwavha-ngwavha in Harare. My second-born son (b. 2003) passed his form 4, but due to lack of financial resources he could not continue with education; so he is also engaging in kungwavha-ngwavha in Harare. The third-born daughter (b. 2007) was doing form 6 at Rufaro High School, and passed very well with Science subjects. The fourth born (b. 2010) and last-born (b. 2014) are in Form 3 and grade 7, respectively.
VD, Surati: I was born in 1985 in Bocha, and grew up in Harare. I completed form 4 in 2004. After completion, I then did a course in dressmaking. In 2006, I then got married and came to live with my parents-in-laws at their plot. My husband was born in 1978, and is a builder by profession. He gets contracts to build and roof houses everywhere, and travels a lot. His parents came here in 1985. They came from Mukaro area in Gutu. In 2014, we were allocated 50m x 50m stand, but we have expanded it to 1ha. We also have access to another 1 ha in my parents’ crop field, where I grow groundnuts. We were very happy to gain access to our own plot to build our own homestead. We were determined to have our own place where we can freely rear livestock and grow crops. In 2025-26 season, we harvested 1.5 tonnes of maize. We currently have 13 cattle.
MK, Surati: I was born in 1967 in a family of seven boys and three girls, but two passed away. My parents came here in 1985. They came from Mataruse area, and were Master farmers. My father passed away in 2010, but my mother is still alive and live with my younger brother (b. 1978) who inherited the homestead. My father was a really good farmer. Through proceeds from farming, he invested in children’s education. All of us went to boarding schools, and later received tertiary education. Amongst the ten children, five are school teachers. Two of my brothers gained access to land in A1 farms in 2000, one of my older brother inherited an A2 plot in Driefontein that my father was allocated after taking the number one spot in farming in the whole district in 2000; while myself and other two brothers were allocated stands within this resettlement area. We all share our late father’s 12ha crop field amongst four of us, including my younger brother who inherited the our parents’ homestead. Between us, we are using 5ha, and the rest of the field lies fallow. These days we only cultivate small areas due to lack of inputs and markets. I am a school teacher by profession, and teaches at a local school in Gutu-Mpandawana. I goes away during the week, and comes back during weekends. However, my wife is always at home. I have a deep well, submersible pump and jojo tank I use for irrigation in our stand. I grow leaf vegetables and green mealies in the small irrigation plot at home.
Contrasting A1 land reform areas and the 1980s old resettlements
In our work with children of land reform beneficiaries in A1 farms, we found that many young people have returned to the rural ‘home’ where they are now engaging in highly diversified livelihoods, with farming right at the centre. This can be both sons and daughters of the original land reform settlers. Demand for land is strong, and more and more land is put under cultivation, with many telling us of the difficulties of accessing land. In response, many have established ‘projects’ such as broiler operations, horticulture, piggery, fish farming and so on. Unlike their parents, there were engaging in intensification through irrigation, value addition and combining off-farm businesses in new ways, which do not require large land areas.
This contrasts with what is happening in the 1980s old resettlement areas, as discussed in the previous section. Land is taken over almost exclusively by male children of the original beneficiaries. The are now in their 40s and 50s are replicating the styles of agriculture employed by their parents. Dryland crop production remains dominant, although its concentrated on stands and/or wetlands due to lack of draft power and inputs. This resembles what we observed in our comparator communal areas where people are now concentrating on homefields. Husbands are much more mobile, often working away while wives manage farm operations, reflecting the old pattern in the communal areas. Surprisingly, irrigated horticulture has not as yet taken off the way it has in A1 farms in Gutu and Masvingo.
What could explain the differences? Could it be that this second generation of farmers are still stuck in the ‘traditional’ way of doing things that their parents pursued, unlike the radical changes that have happened in the post-2000 land reform areas? Could it be that the irrigation pumps that are so popular amongst young people in new A1 areas were too expensive for them when they established their own farms, many in the 1990s and so before the collapse in price of imported Chinese equipment and solar power pumps? Could it be because of the geography of the area, where there is limited access to ground and surface water for use for irrigation purposes, and they prefer to focus on home gardens and wetland (vlei, bani) areas?
We do not know the answers to these questions, and answering them will require further research. But what these comparisons suggest is that how agrarian systems change is highly contextual and time-specific, linked to wider macro-contexts, cultural traditions, technology costs and availability and basic geography. The post-2000 story has may overlaps, as we have discussed – phases of accumulation, challenges of transition across generations, changing relationships between farm and off-farm income earning and so on – but what is happening in the A1 areas feels very different, replicated across our sites in different parts of the country. There is clearly no one story of agrarian change in Zimbabwe, and responses from policy must be guided accordingly.
This is the final blog in a short series on learning lessons from post-1980 old resettlement areas. This post was written by Tapiwa Chatikobo with inputs from Felix Murimbarimba, Ian Scoones, Makiwa Manaka, Betina Muzambirwa and Nyaradzai Mhiripiri
This blog was originally published on Zimbabweland