Yet aggregate figures – with all
the caveats about accuracy - only
tell one part of the story. To get a
sense of what is happening in
the fields and on the farms, we
need a more local focus. Only
with such insights can we really
begin to understand the impacts
of Zimbabwe’s land reform. In
this section, we zero in on
Masvingo province in the central
south and east of the country.
In Masvingo province about 28%
of the total land area was
transferred as part of the Fast
Track Land Reform Programme,
according to official figures.
Much of this land was previously
cattle ranches, with limited
infrastructure, low levels of
employment and only small
patches of arable land, often
irrigated patches around
homesteads. This was taken over
by over 32500 households on A1
sites and about 1200 households
in A2 areas, alongside perhaps a
further 8,500 households in
informal resettlement sites, as yet
unrecognised by the
government. At the same time
one million hectares (18.3% of
the province) remains as largescale commercial operations,
including some very large farms,
conservancies and estates in the
lowveld that remained largely
intact
This radical transformation of
land and livelihoods has resulted
in a new composition of people
in the rural areas, with diverse
livelihood strategies. In order to
understand more about who was
doing what we undertook a
‘success ranking’ exercise in all 16
sites across Masvingo province.
This involved a group of farmers
from the area ranking all
households according to their
own criteria of success. A
number of broad categories of
livelihood strategy emerged
from these investigations. These
are listed in the table below.
households were accumulating
and investing, often employing
labour and ratcheting up their
farming operations, despite the
many difficulties being faced.
Over a half of all the 400 sample
households – across A1, A2 and
informal resettlement sites were either ‘stepping up’ –
accumulation of assets and
regular production of crops for
sale – or ‘stepping out’ –
successful off-farm
diversification. These
Livelihood strategies in Masvingo province
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