In each of these countries the process of land reform is incomplete. The land reform in zimbabwe was organised in line with that slogan and had the following basic elements of speed, which made it to be known as the fast track land reform. Land reform, commercial agriculture and local economic. Land reform is probably one of the most difficult domestic policy issues to be dealt with by zimbabwe, namibia, south africa and australia. Zimbabwes fast track land reform program ftlrp formally began with the land acquisition act of 2002. Agrarian reform can refer either, narrowly, to governmentinitiated or governmentbacked redistribution of agricultural land see land reform or, broadly, to an overall redirection of the agrarian system of the country, which often includes land reform measures. It is mostly a government or authority initiated improvement that aims to bring changes in the lives of its people. Changing agrarian labour relations after land reform in zimbabwe.
However they fuelled new inequities in access to land and farm input and output. The second phase of the land redistribution and resettlement programme in the form of the fast track land reform programme ftlrp, which started in 2000, has created an expanded number and array of small, medium and large scale farms, and effectively transferring ownership from the minority, white farmers to new indigenous farmers. Moyo1995 states that land reform has been undertaken in africa, in america, in asia, and in europe over the last seven decades. Land reform involved the targeted resettlement of the black majority from unproductive. Land reform is the change of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Disparity between policy design and implementation medicine masiiwa institute of development studies university of zimbabwe may 2004 note. Postindependence land reform in zimbabwe has tended to focus on addressing racial imbalances without due attention to other social issues such as gender imbalances. Land reform in south africa, zimbabwe, namibia, and mozambique is quite distinctive in some ways, and typical in others. Land reform in south africa is a moral, social and economic imperative.
Overall impacts of fast track land reform programme. Fast track land reform resulted in a radical and widespread restructuring of the agrarian. Thus about 6% of actual beneficiaries in number got approximately 25% of the land, through the a2 scheme, while 94% of the beneficiaries received the restapproximately 4. Recent extensive land reform and agrarian change in zimbabwe exposes the m yth that the land question in settler africa is not a primary contradiction of the national ques tion, and that land. The programmes stated targets were intended to alter the ethnic balance of land ownership.
In the context of skewed land ownership patterns, extreme inequality and poverty, land reform mu st represent a radical and or significant break from the past, without, however, disrupting agricultural production and food security. A critical analysis of the land reform programme in zimbabwe francis chitsike, zimbabwe 1. Difference between land reform and agrarian reform. Although it is increasingly recognised that zimbabwes fast track land reform programme ftlrp, initiated in 2000, was redistributive moyo et al 2009. Land and agrarian reform in former settler colonial dd. But equally as valid is the view that the case for land reform needed to be reinforced because of the failure of zimbabwes friends and sponsorsthe multilateral and bilateral agencies especiallyto persuade robert mugabe that land reform was too important to be neglected. A mere reference to land reforms in zimbabwe raised eyebrows. Changing agrarian relations after redistributive land. Land reform and redistribution in zimbabwe since 1980 fao. Pdf land, agrarian reform in zimbabwe viewed from a. Fao, policy options for agrarian reform in zimbabwe. Zimbabwe s agrarian reform has reconstituted the structure and orientation of agricultural and non agricultural production, mainly through expanding the numbers of small and middlescale agricultural producers and reconfiguring rural labour.
Land and agrarian reform in former settler colonial dd 123 280320 12. It recently shot into the international limelight with spontaneous occupations of commercial farms in the fore and aftermath of the june 2000 general elections and with the subsequent initiation by the government of zimbabwe goz of a radical fast. It is distinctive in its focus on breaking up large and productive farms. Zimbabwes agrarian question has been widely discussed and analyzed in the past decades.
The reform had shown that finance is not always a precondition of fulfilling national policies, solutions to problems are plural and there is no a one size fit all in addressing resources distribution as proposed by the world bank. This replaced an agrarian structure that was divided between 4,500 largescale commercial farms and many small communal area farms. The agrarian reform in zimbabwe africa on the blog. Zimbabwe, on one side of the spectrum, is facing a crisis in. Agrarian reform, gender and land rights in uzbekistan. Radical land and agrarian reform on the horizon in south. This requires solid, ontheground research aimed at finding out what happened to whom and where and with what consequences. Land reform, a purposive change in the way in which agricultural land is held or owned, the methods of cultivation that are employed, or the relation of agriculture to the rest of the economy. The fast track land reform programme implemented during the 2000s in zimbabwe represents the only instance of radical redistributive land reforms since the. Government will at all times act in the best interest of our nation. Total 8,101 100 26,923,085 100 7,711 2,8 million 367 farms source. Bruce, land tenure, agrarian structure, and comparative land use efficiency in zimbabwe. Arbitrary changes to the legislative framework have contributed to the high level of confusion that has been provoked by the fast track initiative. Land reform also agrarian reform, though that can have a broader meaning involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership.
Political economy analysis of fast track land reform. One prominent contention was that land reform might well lead to increased efficiency of resource utilisation within the agricultural sector as a whole. Options for land tenure reform and land redistribution 1 1994 unpublished ltc research paper 117on file with author. It argues that in order to understand zimbabwes land reform, we have to look at the specific political context in particular places, avoiding generalizations. That can include governmentinitiated property redistribution, transfer of ownership and the rights of the land.
Land reforms have taken shape in many countries of the world, across all continents and at different stages of their respective development. Zimbabwes fast track land reform programme ftlrp initiated from 2000. The fast track land reform programme implemented during the 2000s in zimbabwe represents the only instance of radical redistributive land reforms since the end of the cold war. It is also during this period that warning signs of the imminent land occupation problem became clear. The fasttrack land reform and agrarian change in zimbabwe zimbabwes fast track land reform program ftlrp formally began with the land acquisition act of 2002.
A quantitative analysis of zimbabwes land reform policy core. In zimbabwe, multiple interpretations of postland reform agrarian dynamics are evident. Traditionally, agrarian, or land, reform is confined to the redistribution of land. Agrarian reform article about agrarian reform by the. As zimbabwe moves forward with a new agrarian structure, a more balanced appraisal is needed. The concept of land reform has varied over time according to the range of functions which land itself has. Land reform in zimbabwe officially began in 1980 with the signing of the lancaster house agreement, as an effort to more equitably distribute land between black subsistence farmers and white zimbabweans of european ancestry, who had traditionally enjoyed superior political and economic status.
Geza, the role of resettlement in social development in zimbabwe, journal of social development in africa, 1 1986, pp. High temperatures, and receives rainfall of less than 450 mm. This paper specifically addresses the hypothesis that access to land and forest resources is gendered and povertyrelated among land reform migrants in zimbabwe. Zimbabwe government, 1998 the issue of land redistribution almost vanished from the national agenda during the mid 1980s, prompting some observers to claim that land was not the real issue in zimbabwe as previously thought. The extensive coverage of land reform and agrarian issues in the local and. Beyond whitesettler capitalism see chambati and moyo 2007, or meant to serve immediate political ends. Pdf much of the scholarly work on zimbabwes land and agrarian reform has largely been premised on the livelihoods, political economy and the. The resulting lancaster house agreement set a framework for key outcomes, including a roadmap to elections through a universal plebiscite, a constitution, and steps to achieve equitable land reform. The need for land reform south africa suffered a long history of colonization, racial domination and land dispossession that resulted in the bulk of the agricultural land being owned by a white minority. In this section, we zero in on masvingo province in the central south and east of the country. Zimbabwe land policy study 2 executive to undermine the independence of the judiciary and subvert the rule of law in order to remove obstacles to the implementation of the land reform programme. Agrarian reform can include credit measures, training, extension, land consolidations, etc. Moyo and yeros 2005 argue that a revolutionary transformation occurred, led by a mobilized peasantry, although moyo and chambati 20 also point to the importance of alliances with the state and across classes. Land reform vs agrarian reform reform is a word that means to improve or rectify a present situation, political or social system, or even an institution.
World media demonised zimbabwe and the fasttrack land reforms which were initiated in 1999. Land reform has spatially and temporally occurred throughout the world as a result of a need to change patterns of land ownership or land use king, 1977. Land reform in zimbabwe has radically transformed the rural economy. Moreover, the agrarian reform in zimbabwe clearly pointed out the bias shared by international ngos on issues to deal with human rights. It reversed the raciallyskewed agrarian structure and discriminatory land tenures inherited from colonial rule.
Changing agrarian relations after redistributive land reform in zimbabwe sam moyo redistributive land reform and agrarian reforms since 2000 progressively changed some of zimbabwes agrarian relations, particularly by broadening the producer and consumption base. It is somewhat muted in rural struggles and hence its statedriven character, with zimbabwe as a. In the year 2000, zimbabwe embarked on a fast track land. Changing agrarian labour relations after land reform in. A small minority of white largescale commercial farmers owned and farmed most of the better agricultural land. An adapted version of this paper appears in the edited collection post independence land reform in zimbabwe, published in may 2004 by the friedrich ebert stiftung in harare. The fasttrack land reform a nd agrarian change in zimbabwe zimbabwe s fast track land reform program ftlrp formally began with the land acquisition act of 2002.
A critical analysis of the land reform programme in zimbabwe. Zimbabwes agrarian reform had great implications on the scope, nature and character of international politics. Land reform can, therefore, refer to transfer of ownership from the more powerful to the less powerful, such as. This chapter examines the transformation of agrarian labour relations after the radical restructuring of agrarian property relations since 2000. Scoones et al 2010, few studies have examined the qualitative character of this outcome and its prospects for progressive social and political transformation in a largely agrarian society. It concludes that land and agrarian reforms continue to be of much importance to poverty alleviation.
The human rights watch became vocal on rights abuses when the whites were being evicted from the farms but none of them were heard making noise on the overcrowdedness. Land reform may consist of a governmentinitiated or governmentbacked property redistribution, generally of agricultural land. Introduction at independence in 1980 zimbabwe inherited a highly skewed pattern of land distribution. In zimbabwe, the fast track land reform programme ftlrp, an outcome of invasions and subsequent occupations of large scale commercial farms lscf, shook the zimbabwean and western aristocrats establishment in 2000 and has been characterised as the. Beyond whitesettler capitalism the fast track land reform programme implemented during the 2000s. The distributional outcomes of the ftlrp, which in turn shape a restructured agrarian labour regime, have, however, been acknowledged in a few empirical studies moyo et al 2009.
Radical land and agrarian reform on the horizon in south africa. Tobacco, contract farming, and agrarian change in zimbabwe. Much of this land was previously cattle ranches, with limited. Changing agrarian relations after redistributive land reform in zimbabwe.
676 604 556 197 92 563 736 833 1662 843 1463 1110 807 932 1440 490 1016 1535 19 1151 750 200 1121 1409 1213 880 910 1089 803 814 1299 78 154 167 237 1043 967 519 1368 831