Villagised farms, with allocated homestead areas and fields and common grazing, are the most common type of land reform farm across the country, including in Masvingo province. We have three such case study sites – Lonely Farm (Gutu), Wondedzo Wares (Masvingo) and Sanangwe (Masvingo). Across these sites we discussed with a total of 52 people in three groups (4 men, 6 women; 9 men, 8 women and 15 men and 8 women respectively).
These were lively and informed discussions and tell us a lot about the trajectory of land reform. The three sites have many commonalities (increasing numbers of people, declining common land, reliance on a combination of farm-based accumulation and off-farm diversification, investment in small-scale irrigation and so on), but some important differences.
We found the participants at the Lonely farm success ranking discussion to be confident, forward-looking and relatively young and energetic. This contrasted with the nearby Clare farm that we visited immediately beforehand, where concerns around cross-generational transition had upset earlier success for some (see last blog). Although perhaps not as materially rich, the direction of travel seemed more positive in Lonely, and it contrasted with the past when we first went there when a few older households were in charge and the rest of those who settled were poor, with limited assets, often shuttling between Lonely and Serima communal area next door.
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.
