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Land Use and Agricultural Productivity in Zimbabwe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Dan Weiner ,
Sam Moyo ,
Barry Munslow  and
Phil O'Keefe
Dan Weiner
Affiliation:
Graduate Student at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
Sam Moyo
Affiliation:
Research Fellow in the Zimbabwe Institute of Development Studies, Harare
Barry Munslow
Affiliation:
Lecturer in the Department of Political Theory and Institutions, University of Liverpool
Phil O'Keefe
Affiliation:
Senior Research Fellow in the Beijer Institute, The International Institute for Energy and Human Ecology, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm.
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Extract

Given a continuation of current trends, with increasing population growth and declining food production, Southern Africa (excluding South Africa) which could nearly feed itself during 1979–81, will be only 64 per cent self-sufficient by the turn of the century. Zimbabwe has a particularly important rôle to play in trying to prevent such a disaster. It is by far the most important exporter of food and cash crops in the region, and has been allocated the task of co-ordinating a food-security strategy for the nine member-states of the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference, namely Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 1985 , pp. 251 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

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1 Figure derived from discussions with officials of the Commercial Farmers Union, December 1983.

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2 The authors gratefully acknowledge the work of Kumbirayi Munasirai of the Beijer Institute and the Department of Land Management, University of Zimbabwe, who helped to compile the statistics in this table.

1 Internal Memorandum, Commercial Farmers Union, Harare, 20 May 1982.

2 The Economist (London), 21 April 1984.

1 Riddell, op. cit.

2 The Ministry of Agriculture's method is outlined in detail in ‘Lecture Notes for Land-Use Planning’, Harare, n.d.

1 Our figure is significantly smaller than the Whitsun Foundation's estimate of 7 per cent, because they were counting total arable land for a wider geographical area (i.e. including Manicaland).

2 Rotations of planted pasture and fodder crops have been included as part of total cropped area in C.S.O. statistics. In the 1981–1982 crop year, there was 46,712 hectares under planted pasture and 11,440 under fodder crops.

1 This does not include the 58,152 hectares under planted pasture and fodder crops. Furthermore, crop residues are often used for feeding.

2 Private communication with authors, June 1984. This stocking rate is based on what planners feel is ecologically sustainable in the region.

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1 We have visited farms in Mashonaland with over ten tractors. The figure also excludes the 628 combines used in the sub-sector that year.

2 van der Sluijs, D. H., ‘Prospects for the Commercial Farming Sector’, in World Bank, Zimbabwe Agricultural Sector Study (Washington, D.C., 1983), p. 19. Our estimate of average cropped area is higher because we are including the Mashonaland region only.Google Scholar

3 Data obtained from Ministry of Agriculture, July 1984.

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2 Private communication with Senior Planner of the Ministry of Agriculture's Agritex branch, May 1984.

3 Wright, op. cit.

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1 Department of Conservation and Extension, ‘Final Project for the Umfurudzi Intensive Resettlement Area’, Harare, 1981.

2 Kinsey, loc. cit.

3 This is the assumption used in model A farm plans.

4 Kinsey, loc. cit. p. 189.

1 Figures obtained through discussion with officials of the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement, and Rural Development, Harare, July 1984.

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3 The Herald, 6 September 1984.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid. 20 March 1985.

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