7 research outputs found
Labour after Land Reform: The Precarious Livelihoods of Former Farmworkers in Zimbabwe
What happens to labour when major redistributive land reform restructures a system of settler colonial agriculture? This article examines the livelihoods of former farmworkers on largeâscale commercial farms who still live in farm compounds after Zimbabwe's land reform. Through a mix of surveys and inâdepth biographical interviews, four different types of livelihood are identified, centred on differences in land access. These show how diverse, but often precarious, livelihoods are being carved out, representing the âfragmented classes of labourâ in a restructured agrarian economy. The analysis highlights the tensions between gaining new freedoms, notably through access to land, and being subject to new livelihood vulnerabilities. The findings are discussed in relation to wider questions about the informalization of the economy and the role of labour and employment in a postâsettler agrarian economy, where the old âfarmworkerâ label no longer applies
Zimbabweâs land reform: challenging the myths
Most commentary on Zimbabweâs land reform insists that agricultural production has almost totally collapsed, that food insecurity is rife, that rural economies are in precipitous decline, that political âcroniesâ have taken over the land and that farm labour has all been displaced. This paper however argues that the story is not simply one of collapse and catastrophe; it is much more nuanced and complex, with successes as well as failures. The paper provides a summary of some of the key findings from a ten-year study in Masvingo province and the book Zimbabweâs Land Reform: Myths and Realities. The paper documents the nature of the radical transformation of agrarian structure that has occurred both nationally and within the province, and the implications for agricultural production and livelihoods. A discussion of who got the land shows the diversity of new settlers, many of whom have invested substantially in their new farms. An emergent group âmiddle farmersâ is identified who are producing, investing and accumulating. This has important implications â both economically and politically â for the future, as the final section on policy challenges discusses.ESR