There is much to build on in terms of basic investment and the skills and knowledge of the new settlers. The challenge is a new one however for agricultural research and development. As the head of extension in the province put it: “We don’t know our new clients: this is a totally new scenario”. Responding to this scenario requires careful thought. The new resettlement areas are not a replication of the communal areas, nor are they a scaled-down version of the old commercial sector. These are new people with new production systems engaging in new markets – all with new opportunities and challenges. The new farmers are often highly educated, well-connected and with important skills. Support for marketing or input supply via mobile phone updates, or agricultural extension or business planning advice offered via the Internet offer real opportunities. It is this commitment and drive that is the basis of the emergence of a group of successful agricultural producers – around half of all households, especially concentrated in the A1 farms - farming for the market and generating wider economic impacts, including employment. If given the right support, this group of new farmers can drive a vibrant agricultural revolution in Zimbabwe. This has happened before: with white commercial farmers from the 1950s and with communal area farmers in the 1980s. But both past agricultural revolutions required support and commitment from outside, something that has been starkly absent in the past decade. Zimbabwe’s green revolution of the 1980s has been much hailed, but this only involved perhaps 20% of farmers, mostly in high potential communal areas and was quickly extinguished following structural adjustment. The nascent green revolution in the resettlement areas potentially has far wider reach, both geographically and socioeconomically, and must not meet the same fate. We argue that a 14 smallholder-based agricultural revolution could indeed be the basis of wider growth and development if given the opportunity and provided the support. The past decade of land resettlement has unleashed a process of radical agrarian change. There are now new people on the land, engaged in multiple forms of economic activity, connected to diverse markets and carving out a variety of livelihoods. Our data identify an emerging process of ‘accumulation from below’, rooted in smallholder farming. But if the new resettlements are to contribute to local livelihoods, national food security and broader economic development, they unquestionably require investment and support. This means infrastructure (dams, roads), financing (credit systems), input supply (fertilizer, seed), technology (intermediate and appropriate) and institutions and policies that allow agriculture to grow.