The A2 farms in Matobo are in some of the most remote parts of the district. These are predominantly livestock farming areas, with cattle being the dominant livestock type. Getting to these areas in the rainy season requires a four-wheel drive, skilled driving and much patience. The farms have been carved out of huge ranches with an average of 2800 hectares, with current farms being around 486 ha on average. The other medium-scale farms in the area – which we combine in our analysis with A2 farms – are so-called three-tier farms with average sizes of 302 ha, which were allocated by the district council prior to the land reform.
Most farms in our sample are not inhabited permanently by the farm owner, although this has shifted over time as owners have retired from jobs in town. Many farms have very basic forms of accommodation mostly occupied by farm workers who manage the herding of animals, as well as sometimes some limited irrigated horticulture near the homesteads. A2 farms include many who were formerly war veterans, often with the ZIPRA liberation army, but many have not had high level political connections as is common with those coming from Mashonaland and so have not had access to sources of patronage from the party-state. As discussed below, most financing comes from private sources, including off-farm businesses, diaspora remittances and other jobs, including with NGOs and as consultants (although with the collapse of aid funding, this is now more difficult).
This article is from Zimbabweland, a blog written by IDS Research Fellow Ian Scoones. Zimbabweland focuses on issues related to rural livelihoods and land reform in Zimbabwe.