phone farmers preside over areas of often under-utilised land, perhaps with a decaying new tractor in the farmyard. Yet, despite their disproportionate influence on local politics, they are few-and-far between, making up less than 5% of the total population in our areas. In Masvingo province such elite capture is not the dominant story, despite the media assumptions. Masvingo is of course not Mazowe or Marondera, but even in the Highveld the situation is much more diverse than what mainstream portrayals suggest. But not everyone has been successful. 46.5% of households were finding the going tough, and were not regarded as ‘successful’ at this stage. Some are really struggling and only just ‘hanging in’; others are in the process of ‘dropping out’ through a combination of chronic poverty and ill health. Joining the land invasions and establishing new farms in what was often uncleared bush was not easy. It required commitment, courage and much hard work. It was not for everyone. Others without start-up assets have been unable to accumulate, and have continued to live in poverty, reliant on the support of relatives and friends. Some have joined a growing labour force on the new farms, abandoning their plots in favour of often poorlypaid employment. Within the ‘stepping out’ category some are surviving off illegal, unsafe or transient activities that allowed survival but little else. Still others are straddling across two farms – one in the communal area and on in the new resettlement – and not really investing in the new areas, while some are simply keeping the plot for sons or other relatives. It is not surprising that there have been such variable outcomes. In the period since 2000 there has been virtually no external support. Government was broke and focused support on the elite few, and the NGOs and donors have shied away from the new resettlement areas for political reasons. Instead, most new farmers have been reliant on their own connections, enterprise and labour. Without support to get going, many have found it difficult, and it has only been those through a combination of access to assets, hard work and luck that have really made it. As has been widely reported, there are some who have made it only because they have benefited from patronage. These are the so-called ‘cronies’ of the party, wellconnected to the machinery of the state and able to gain advantage. These cell 5 Overall, in our study sites there is a core group of ‘middle farmers’ – around half of the population – who are successful not because of patronage support, but because of hard work. They can be classified as successful ‘petty commodity producers’ and ‘worker peasants’ who are gaining surpluses from farming, investing in the land from offfarm work and so are able to ‘accumulate from below’. This is having a positive impact on the wider economy, including stimulating demand for services, consumption goods and labour.