Methodologies and Institutions in Zimbabwe's Evolving Environmental Assessment Framework

AEE Working paper.Environmental assessment (EA) is "a procedure for assessing environmental implications of a decision to enact legislation, to implement policies or plans, or to initiate development projects ... and the conveying v of this information at a stage when it can materially affect their decision, to those responsible for sanctioning the proposal". (Wathern, 1988). As a regulation it has become integrated into land use planning to greater or lesser degrees in countries throughout the developed and developing world. As a technique for decision-making EA is often claimed to promote sustainable development if it is rigorously applied. Although this is a grandiose claim, the provision of timely information to decision-makers and the ex ante highlighting of possibly unforeseen impacts may be expected to enhance environmental management. Indeed, the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brunutland Report) (WCED, 1987) specifically advocated the use of this technique to promote the management of natural resources

Do underdeveloped rural grain markets constrain cash crop production in Zimbabwe? Evidence from Zimbabwe

A research paper on marketing problems of cash crops by smallholder rural farmers in Zimbabwe.This paper focuses on how production of high-valued cash crops may be constrained by marketing problems in the grain sub-sector. The analysis finds that the higher financial returns to oilseeds as compared with marketed maize production may be negated if the grain marketing system cannot deliver low cost grain to rural areas. The price many rural consumers in semi-arid areas pay for maize (/.<?., the retail price of roller meal) is 110 percent more than for the price which many smallholders sell maize (i.e., the GMB producer price of maize). This difference between producer and consumer prices means that the household value of maize may be quite different depending on whether the household is a grain seller or grain buyer. If the latter, normalising for labour time, oilseed production rarely provides greater returns per acre than maize for home consumption. The consumer price is often the more relevant value of maize in semi-arid areas, where the majority of smallholders are net purchasers of grain.USAID (Southern Africa Regional Programme

Grain marketing by communal farmers in Zimbabwe: preliminary results from Mutoko, Mudzi and Buhera districts

A conference paper on grain marketing by rural farmers in Zimbabwe.Approximately 60% of Zimbabwe’s total land area and 40% of communal households are in marginal areas in Natural Regions IV and V. Because these areas have poor soil and low and erratic rainfall (averaging 600 mm annually), crop production is a risky undertaking. Since independence in 1980, the government has sought to both increase the incomes of communal farmers and improve household food security in these areas Zimbabwe, 1983) by encouraging farmers to increase their production and marketing of small grains (sorghum and the millets) and oilseeds (groundnut and sunflower). Several specific policies have been instituted to elicit increased production and marketing of small grains