CRISIS DOES NOT SPELL THE END

The peasantry during a decade of economic decline in

Zimbabwe

A case of Gwanda South (Ntalale)

A Research Paper presented by:

Charmaine R.S Manyani
(Zimbabwe)

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for obtaining the degree of

MASTERS OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
Specialization:
Rural Livelihoods and Global Change
(RLGC)

Members of the examining committee:

Prof. Max Spoor
Prof. Ashwani Saith

The Hague, The Netherlands

November, 2011
Disclaimer:
This document represents part of the author’s study programme while at the
Institute of Social Studies. The views stated therein are those of the author and
not necessarily those of the Institute.

Inquiries:
Postal address: Institute of Social Studies
P.O. Box 29776
2502 LT The Hague
The Netherlands

Location: Kortenaerkade 12
2518 AX The Hague
The Netherlands
Telephone: +31 70 426 0460
Fax: +31 70 426 0799

ii
Acknowledgements
To everyone that made this process easier and smooth thank you. To everyone
who helped in my Research in Zimbabwe, my lovely farmers, you all are the
best. To my supervisor and reader who were there to guide me through the
process from the very beginning to the end, gratitude. To my ISS family espe-
cially Nicole Hosein, Moreblessing Mbire, Sharon Ndandula, Gracsious Ncube,
Jaye de la Cruz thank you for always being there, encouraging and supporting-
God bless you all. To my lovely parents, mommy and daddy you are the best
parents a girl could ever wish for, I LOVE YOU. To my brothers and sisters, I
love you guys.

iii
Contents
Acknowledgements iii
List of Tables vi
List of Figures vi
List of Maps vi
List of Acronyms vii
Abstract viii
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Exploring and dissecting intent of paper 3
1.3 Organization of the paper 5
Chapter 2 Analytical framework 6
2.1 Livelihood diversification as coping strategy to crisis 6
2.2 What’s in a name? Interrogating the term peasant 8
2.2.1 against all odds 10
Chapter 3 of peasant farmers and economic decline in Ntalale
Village (Gwanda) 14
3.1 Situational analysis of Gwanda 14
3.1.1 Data Collection and limitations 14
3.2 Death to the peasant farm – myth or reality 17
3.2.1 Brunt of economic decline on peasant farmers in Gwanda 18
3.2.2 Environmental changes 20
3.2.3 Relief aid 22
3.2.4 Mining 23
3.2.5 Effects of HIV/AIDS 24
From thorns to harvest in diversified economies 25
3.3 Coping strategies in Ntalale 25
3.3.1 Irrigation schemes 27
3.3.2 Garden plots 28
3.3.4 Mining 28
3.3.5 Other diversified incomes 28
Chapter 4 De-agrarianisation-but no de-peasantization 31
4.1 The cultivated lands and grazing livestock of Ntalale 31
4.2 Is agriculture still important in the village of Ntalale? 32
4.3 Change not demise-dawn of a new peasantry 34

iv
 4.3.1 The ‘old’ elites 34
4.3.2 Social changes in Gwanda in the past decade 36
4.3.3 Changes in Demographic profiles 36
4.3.4 The ‘new’ elites 37
Chapter 5 Conclusions 40
APPENDICES Questionnaire 42
REFERENCES 49

v
List of Tables
Table 1.1: Official and parallel exchange rates 2
Table 1.1: Class analytical typologies 13
Table 3.1: Maize yields in Zimbabwe (1995-2007) 17
Table 3.2: Awareness to climatic changes 21
Table 3.3: Diversified incomes of Ntalale 25
Table 4.1: Income rankings in Ntalale in the 1990’s 34
Table 4.2: Characteristics of the old elite 35
Table 4.1: Age frequency in households 36
Table 4.2: Migration trends in males and females in Ntalale 37
Table 4.3: Income patterns in Ntalale from 1990-2010 39

List of Figures
Road sign: Field picture 14
Figure 3.1: Impact of economic decline and droughts on peasant farmers
in Ntalale 19
Illustration of siltation in Gwanda South water sources 22
Illustration of a relief aid point 23
Illustration of a gold panner (‘omakorokoza’) 24
Illustration of cross boarder jumping 26

List of Maps
Map 1.1: Political Map of Zimbabwe 3
Map 3.1: Ntalale village (Ward 11) 15

vi
List of Acronyms
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GNP Gross National Product

FTLRP Fast Track Land Reform Programme

HIV Human Immune Virus

MARS Migration and Remittances Survey

NGO Non Governmental Organisation

RDC Rural District Council

SAMP South African Migration Project

USD United States Dollar

VIDCO Village Development Committee

ZAR South African Rand

vii
Abstract

Crisis is not the end, as shall be demonstrated in this paper presenting the
case of Ntalale village situated in Gwanda, Matabeleland South in Zimbabwe.
The economic decline witnessed in Zimbabwe in the last decade has reshaped
the livelihood strategies of people in both the urban and rural areas. This paper
seeks to highlight and explain how the peasant farming households in Ntalale
have had to reorganize their lifestyles by engaging more in diversified income
portfolios as coping strategies in the climate of macroeconomic decline.
Trends of de-agrarianisation in the area shall be explored with emphasis placed
on the empirical evidence that this phenomena has not only been the result of
the economic collapse but that there are other contributing factors leading to
this situation.
Venturing into the different income making strategies has created a visible
differentiated class of people in the village and this has had a bearing on social
relations in the area. This paper shall therefore also explore how these relations
have been reshaped and how they have reconstituted the social relations in the
area. Conclusions drawn from this paper reveal that though the economic
decline and harsh climatic conditions have resulted in diversified livelihood
portfolios and de-agrarianisation in the area this has not led to the ‘inevitable’
demise of the peasantry.

Relevance to Development Studies

The survival of the peasantry is crucial in development studies as its continuity
has been linked with the ability to feed the world. The survival of the peasant
class has inspired the agrarian question debate questioning the agrarian
transformation under the global capitalist system. Would penetration of capital
result in an inevitable demise of the peasantry? Or can diversification of
incomes if securely harnessed expand rural economies without undermining
the agro base of rural communities.

Keywords
De-agrarianisation/ Crisis/ Depeasantisation/ Diversification/
Differentiation/ Accumulation/ Peasants/ Livelihood Strategies/

viii
Chapter 1
Introduction

1.1 Background
Zimbabwe has a largely agricultural economy which according to Rukuni
et al (2006) contributed between 12-20% GDP between 1985 and 2007. The
percentage share of agriculture to the overall GDP has however been on the
decline following the land invasions of 2000 code named ‘jambanja’
operationalized under the Fast Track Land Reform Program which resulted in
a massive dispossession of the white commercial farmers from the land. The
re-occupation of the land was a political move meant to correct the unequal
distribution of the land, a remnant of the colonial period. Scoones et al. (2010:
4) argue that, at attainment of independence Zimbabwe inherited an uneven
land ownership pattern, with around 42% of the countries prime land owned
by approximately 6000 white large scale commercial farmers. Commercial
agriculture dominated the formal agricultural sector economy contributing
75% of the total agricultural output and 96% of sales. Advanced technology
and effective farm management resulted in high yields with maize for example
averaging 4.2 tonnes per hectare. The penalty for the contested ‘violent’
removal of the white farmers from the land was the imposition of sanctions on
the country by the United States of America and the European Union.
Following the economic meltdown which became inevitable with the industrial
collapse and recurrent droughts, agricultural production has been on the
decline in the country to the extent were the country which used to be known
as the ‘bread basket’ of Southern Africa has been referred to as the ‘basket
case’ of the Southern horn by different media.
The country has suffered hyper inflationary environment in the past
decade which has been attributed amongst a host of reasons to the wage –price
spiral (when the price of goods rose workers demanded a rise in salary to
complement the price hikes of goods and services). In 2006 according to the
Reserve Bank Statistics the rate of inflation was 4500%, this hyperinflationary
environment had a negative impact on agricultural performance in the country;
according to Biti ((2009: 14) the agricultural sector suffered a heavy decline
during the period 2000 to 2008, shrinking by an annual average of -7.1% with
the cumulative agricultural output contracting by -79.4% between 2002 and
2008. Political instability and economic challenges have been some of the
factors attributed to the disintegration of the agricultural sector in the past
decade.
The shrinking economy had a negative impact on peasant farming because
prices on agricultural inputs and food were pushed beyond the reach of the
ordinary peasant farmers. The monetary exchange rates in Zimbabwe quickly
became a method of creation of wealth for those who had access to foreign
currency resulting in steep social differentiation in both the urban and rural

1
areas of the country. Soon after independence according to Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe online (2008) 1 1US$ was exchanged at less than Z$2 on the official
market and in 2000 the official rate was 1US$ is to Z$38. However the
exchange rates soon spiralled out of control exacerbated by the parallel market
exchange rates that mushroomed overnight in the country. Table 1.1 below
shows an illustration of parallel exchange rates compared to the official market
rates against the US$
Table 1.1: Official and parallel exchange rates

Year Official exchange rate Parallel exchange rate

2000 38 56-70
2001 55 70-340
2003 550-824 1400-6000
2005 5,730-26,003 6,400-100 000
20062 250 550-3
2007 250 3,000-2,000 000
2008 30,000 5,000,000-7,500,000

Source: RBZ online, 2008

Litwin (1992: 5) emphasizes the role of agriculture in Zimbabwe by
arguing that, ‘when agriculture sneezes, the Zimbabwean economy catches a
cold’. According to the Reserve Bank online (2008) between the years of 2000
and December 2007, the national economy of Zimbabwe contracted by 40 %,
inflation increased to about 66 000% and there were persistent shortages of
foreign currency, food, fuel and medicine. GDP per capita reduced by 40%,
agricultural output dropped by 51% and industrial production decreased by
47% and the participation of agricultural products on the international market
has been on the decline since the implementation of the FTLRP in year 2000.
With this backdrop the government was forced to reduce most of the
subsidies it provided to peasant farmers due to the shortages of foreign
currency and the liquidity crisis the economy suffered with industrial collapse
and trade sanctions. Foreign currency shortages and the diminishing industrial
productivity resulted in the failure by the government to plan for agricultural
seasons, since it could no longer invest effectively in agricultural infrastructure,
source inputs like fertilizers, seeds, farm equipment and machinery. Peasant
farmers were left vulnerable to the market system which saw the ‘rise and fall’
of the peasant farmers. Following the escalating poverty growth rates in the
rural areas donor aid became prevalent and a necessity to sustain livelihoods.
Though necessary the donor aid created a culture of dependency which in

1 http://www.mopanetree.com/press-releases-reports/5239-zimbabwe-reserve-bank-
zimbabwe-statement-cash-situation-stabilisation.html

2On the 1st of August 2006, the Reserve bank redenominated the Zimbabwean dollar
at the rate of 1 revalued dollar=1000 old dollars in the revaluation campaign code
named ‘Operation sunrise’.

2
some cases saw the abandonment of farming by some peasant farmers leaving
the land fallow for more than one farming season and in some cases renting
out land to neighbours who had access to cash or goods for exchange. This
period saw an increase in non-farm incomes as the peasant farmers tried to
find coping livelihood strategies beyond the farm.

1.2 Exploring and dissecting intent of paper

This paper intends to explore how the peasant class in Zimbabwe has had
to reorganize its livelihood strategies in the past decade of economic decline.
Economic decline has created a vulnerable peasant class which has had no
alternative but to seek and engage in other income generating activities as
agricultural production has been on a decline in the country. As research from
the field will reveal, these new coping strategies have had an effect on
agricultural patterns in the village of Ntalale in Gwanda South leading to a
visible de-agrarianisation process. Could this process then mark the first signs
of de-peasantization in the area or is it just a temporary scenario that has been
encouraged by the economic decline coupled with other factors on the
ground? Below is a map showing location of Gwanda within Zimbabwe

Map 1.1: Political Map of Zimbabwe

Source: www.mapsofworld.com
The diversified income portfolios that the villagers of Ntalale have
ventured into include migration to the bordering countries Botswana,
Mozambique and South Africa, gold panning, brick moulding, cross border
trading, small retail businesses, garden farming, informal trading, part time on
farm and off farm work. The result of these economic activities has been the
creation of a more visible differentiation of the peasant households in the

3
village of Ntalale. The participation in the different livelihood strategies yielded
different strata in incomes generated in the households and this had an effect
on the accumulation potentials of the households. Some households managed
to accumulate more than some of the households in the village because of the
increased inflows of cash resulting in productive consumption. This paper will
seek to establish if these diversified portfolios have created in the case of
Gwanda a rural economy which is more reliant on non farm income as
opposed to agricultural production. With the distribution of income being
uneven there was and is the emergence of a new rich peasantry which has used
its new found wealth to accumulate possessions (land, labour, business
ventures, farm equipment, livestock, and e.t.c) this paper will explore how the
existing social structure has paved way or reorganized itself in the face of
change happening in the area. And in so doing, also address how the old rich
elite have been affected by these changes. Power in rural areas has always been
vested along traditional lineages and political lines with those privileged
determining who gets what, when and how? With the emergence of this new
‘elite’ group, this paper seeks to establish if any power struggles are imminent
within the two groups and if yes which one wields more influence and has the
power visibly shifted hands?
With the economic pressures facing the peasant farmers there has been an
increase in the number of villagers selling their labour cheaply for any form of
work which has a return be it in cash or be it in kind. In essence while some
peasants became poorer in the last decade others have used this economic
situation to their own benefit thereby creating a visible differentiated peasant
class of (winners and losers). The paper shall trace the implication of these
actions to the rural economy, is this reality further increasing differentiation
among the peasants, what are the implications of these incomes on the agrarian
economy? With this backdrop, the main objective of this paper is to ascertain if
livelihood strategies like non farm incomes have an impact on the organization
of rural societies and how this would affect social relations and social
reproduction of a rural community. All this will be done within the context of
the economic crisis looking at the ways in which it has fuelled the uptake of
diversified portfolios in the village of Ntalale, Ward 11 in Gwanda South.
However as field findings reveal, economic decline has not been the sole driver
towards de-agrarianisation.
Research Questions
The main research question of the study carried out in Ntalale is:

 How has the economic decline in Zimbabwe in the past decade

reconstituted the peasant class and reshaped its livelihood
strategies?

To help with data collection the main question was broken down into five
sub questions below:
Sub questions
I. What was the impact of the economic decline on peasant farmers in
Gwanda?

4
 II. What strategies did the peasant farmers adopt to cope with the
situation?

III. Has the economic decline pushed peasant farmers out of farming?
And are there other factors that may have created opportunities for
this scenario for example drought and relief aid?

IV. Has agriculture lost its importance and value to the peasant farmers in
the district?

V. How different is the new peasant class of accumulators different from

the old elite peasant in terms of social origins, political networks,
economic capabilities, and household demographic profiles?

1.3 Organization of the paper

This paper has been structured into five chapters; chapter 2 is a
presentation of the analytical framework on which arguments in this paper are
premised. Chapter 3 will be opened by a discussion on the situational analysis
of the case study as well as the methodology used in the conduction of the
research. This shall be followed by an introduction to the field findings with
discussions on the effects of the economic decline on the peasant households,
as well as the various factors that have resulted in de-agrarianisation and the
consequent livelihood diversification as coping strategy. Chapter 4 will engage
the concepts of de-agrarianisation, depeasantisation, differentiation and
livelihood diversification in investigating the social changes that have been
manifest in Ntalale village for the past decade. Chapter 5 will conclude the
paper by discussing the field findings and juxtaposing them with the theoretical
framework engaged in the study.

5
Chapter 2
Analytical framework

2.1 Livelihood diversification as coping strategy to crisis

Diversification and exchange of goods on the informal and formal market
has always been part of the economic opportunities for the African rural
populations. Sen and Dreze (1981: 76) are of the contention that, ‘one of the
earliest and most robust findings of anthropological studies in uncertain
environments is that diversification is among the chief strategies adapted by
vulnerable communities to reduce the precariousness of their lives’. People
learn not to depend on one source of income. Rural livelihood diversification
as defined by Ellis (1999: 02) is a process by which households diversify into
different income activities and social support capabilities as livelihood
strategies for survival. The causes of the adoption by rural families of
diversified income portfolios range from credit market failures, economic
shocks for example economic decline in Zimbabwe. Livelihood diversification
is definitely not a homogenous trend, as most literature indicates; multiple
motives are behind the diversification of incomes and activities at individual
and household level. Barrett et.al (2001: 1-2) are of the assertion that motives
towards diversification comprise:
“Push factors”: risk reduction, response to diminishing factor returns in any
given use, such as family labour supply in the presence of land constraints
driven by population pressure and landholdings fragmentation, reaction to
crisis or liquidity constraints, high transactions costs that induce households
to self-provision in several goods and services. The second set of motives
comprise “pull factors”: realization of strategic complementarities between
activities, such as crop-livestock integration or milling and hog production,
specialization according to comparative advantage accorded by superior
technologies, skills or endowments
A diverse portfolio of activities contributes to the sustainability of a rural
livelihood because it improves its resilience in the face of adverse trends or
sudden shocks. In general, increased diversity promotes greater flexibility
because it allows more possibilities for substitution between opportunities that
are in decline and those that are expanding (ibid: 4). Diversification in the case
of Gwanda has been spearheaded by the first motive of push factors.
Economic decline and poor climatic conditions in the past decade have
worked together into pushing peasant farmers into adopting other livelihood
strategies that have created a diversified income portfolio in Gwanda. These
push factors have played a role in the trend towards de-agrarianisation and
social differentiation in the village of Ntalale in Gwanda. Scoones et al. (2010:
168) address questions towards this trend are we seeing a decline in agriculture,
a de-peasantization and proletarianisation, with economic forces driving people
away from agriculture or are we seeing increasing investment in peasant style
livelihoods, with small holder agriculture becoming more central to a locally
driven economy? However the context of these assertions differs with place
and time, and in the case of Gwanda would raise the questions, would the

6
process of de-agrarianization have been localized in the area without the down
turn in the economy and where the result of these processes fully market
driven or they were led by other factors ?
In this paper I shall argue that though de-agrarianisation is visible in the
country side of Matabeleland South region this is not a uniform trend as
households in the region are not homogenous. While some households are
now more and more reliant on non farm incomes there are still some
households that try to subsist from agricultural production on the family farm.
‘De-agrarianisation should be seen as a process embedded in social change,
bearing in mind the reversibility between farm and nonfarm livelihood
strategies used by households’ (Yaro, 2006: 1). To put this in perspective
Bryceson (1996: 99) defines de-agrarianisation as, ‘a long term process of
occupational adjustment, income earning, re orientation, social identification
and spatial relocation of rural dwellers away from strictly peasant modes of
livelihoods’. However it is subject to interpretation what one would subscribe
as, ‘strictly peasant’ modes of livelihoods because the peasantry is not a single
homogenous class because it transcends boarders and context. What could be
determining characteristics of a peasant in one area might not apply in another
different geographical location with a different set of beliefs and knowledge
system. In her analysis of the concept of de-agrarianisation Bryceson (2004:
618) defines depeasantisation as a more specific variation of de-agrarianisation
whereby the economic capacity and social coherence of peasantries are being
progressively undermined resulting in the exit of the peasantry from farming.
However it is of importance to note that in every socio-economic calamity we
have winners and losers, though economic decline in Zimbabwe might have
created or expanded the peasant class vulnerabilities part of this class of
peasant farmers has benefited during this time through capital and asset
accumulation.
Diversification into nonfarm income sources has increased in the past
decade and now accounts for a considerable share of household incomes in
Matabeleland South. This trend is very evident in the area of study undertaken
in Gwanda; results showed that 80 % of households interviewed had one or
more incomes derived from nonfarm activities. The growth of diversified
incomes in the era of economic decline in Zimbabwe has in the village of
Ntalale been responsible for the widespread commercialization of most goods
and services even those that have always been known to be free in the past for
example, wood fuel and water supplies, that have always been free natural
goods as far as traditional heritage was concerned, have become scarce and are
now known to assume a cash exchange value with respect to their procurement
and transport. The economic meltdown in Zimbabwe saw the further
penetration of formal and parallel market systems into the communities of
rural areas resulting in the transformation of relations into single interest
relations of individuals with goods to sell or exchange. Peasant farmers have
had to contend with not only the economic collapse but also watching the
mainstay of their livelihoods being harshly trampled on by droughts that have
besieged the country in the last decade. Study of literature indicates that the
process of de-agrarianisation accelerated with the economic crisis in the
country. Bryceson (2002: 727) is of the contention that the movement towards
de-agrarianisation became evident with the imposition of structural adjustment

7
programs from the mid 1980’s to the mid 1990’s. These SAP’s were
instrumental in the undermining of most peasant capital injected production
through the removal of subsidies on farm production inputs such as pesticides,
seeds, fertilizers and farm equipment. Farmers thus became vulnerable to the
operating market forces with its fluctuating market prices, increase in input
prices and reduced market supply given the private actors outreach was not as
wide as that of the parastatals. Thus the promise of SAP’s of a revitalizing the
rural economy became an actual deterrent in peasant farm production. To cope
with decreased farm production rural communities had to find new alternative
coping strategies to sustain their livelihoods.
Economic meltdown in Zimbabwe has been instrumental in the voluntary
and in some cases forced diversification of incomes in the rural areas, with
some households engaging in different non-agricultural activities
simultaneously or at different times all year round as a way of coping with
stresses of rising agricultural input prices on the market and low production on
the farm. Voluntary as a way of seizing opportunities for further accumulation
of resources and store of wealth in assets as well as involuntary in the instances
when the peasant farming household had to find alternative incomes as they
could not derive a sustainable income on the farm given the economic crisis
and poor climatic conditions that were a major deterrent factor in farm
production. The economic crisis in Zimbabwe has inevitably resulted in the re-
configuration of the peasant class livelihoods and its social relations in the past
decade.

2.2 What’s in a name? Interrogating the term peasant

The peasantry is not a uniform entity and has varied over years in their
social composition and economic structures. The peasants have four main
characteristics in common according to Teodor Shanin (1976):
Peasants share the pursuit of an agricultural livelihood combining subsistence
and commodity production, their internal social organization revolves around
the family unit as the primary unit of production, reproduction, socialization,
welfare and risk spreading, they are externally subordinated to state
authorities and regional international markets that involve class differentiation
and transfers of tax and profit and lastly they reside in rural settlements and
often identified with a traditional conformist attitudinal outlook relative to
more urbanized populations (as quoted in Bryceson, 2002: 37).

Though the peasantry in Gwanda does fit and embrace the characteristics
as theorized by Shanin (1976) the argument in this paper is that, though
externally subordinated by market forces regulated by state, regional and
international markets’ the peasantry has its own internal inclinations towards
being exploitative within the parameters of its social structures (peasant
exploiting peasant). Also this paper argues that though peasant livelihoods are
premised on agriculture for subsistence and comodification it is no longer the
only income and mainstay of the village livelihood. On the contrary people are
being pushed out of farming due to the economic crisis and climatic challenges
that have besieged the region in the last decade. However this could only be a
temporary phase as people in the village pointed out that if the climatic

8
conditions could turn for the better and the economy stabilized they would
engage again in full scale farming as it is and will always remain a part of their
culture and tradition.

Wolf (1966: 3–4) defined peasants as rural cultivators whose surpluses are
transferred to a dominant group of rulers, while Kincaid cited in Wolf
maintained that peasants were ‘rural cultivators from whom an economic
surplus is extracted, in one form or another, freely or coercively, by non-
producing classes’ (ibid: 145). These orthodox definitions of the peasantry as
postulated by Wolf and Kincaid could have been applicable at certain points in
history under systems of oppression that have taken various forms over the
years, however in present day societies their relevance has waned in some
societies and lost meaning. In present day political economy of Zimbabwe
peasants produce for personal subsistence and personal profit when they sell
their surplus commodities on the market. The way they dispose their surplus
production is in no way determined by any other class in society it is purely
free will and free agency. At the same time though oppression of the peasant
class has been determined by privileged classes and still is in some societies the
peasant class farmers are now faced with the uneven regulations of the world
market system they have to operate in given the scale of globalization. Scott
(1976: 85) alludes to the rude shock linked to the world market as destroying
subsistence security in the early 20th Century. The peasantry of today even as
depicted in Gwanda has intensified their activities on the market for
commodities, agricultural technology, loans from credit facilities, and all other
services provisioned on the market which has brought with it interconnected
vulnerabilities. According to Edelman (2005: 336):

Peasant’s widespread adoption of modern technologies, even when employed

in traditional cultivation systems has deepened dependence on the cash
economy and exacerbated the multiple environmental and health catastrophes
too often associated with industrial agriculture. The subsistence crisis of
droughts, floods, insect crop blights, animal diseases and plummeting prices
still occur but they are compounded by new risks and more uncertainty and
punishing impacts of decades of economic liberalization and institutional
restructuring.
Therefore, though external forces contribute towards social differentiation
of the peasantry evidence in Gwanda points to the fact that even without
working formal markets the seizing of opportunistic coping strategies has
inherently resulted in internal escalated social differentiation in Gwanda
proving that peasants like any other class have inclinations towards
accumulation for its own sake. African case study material according to
Bryceson (2002: 734) shows that ‘non-agricultural income diversifications can
re-in force class as higher income earners redirect portions of their agricultural
capital to more lucrative non-agricultural activities’. The case of Ntalale village
supports this assertion; non agricultural activities have intensified social
differentiation and created a very capitalist economic system in the village.
Though social networks are still maintained and still used in the extended
family of the African tradition it now has boundaries and limitations of
applicability. This reaffirms that the peasantry is ‘a process within the broader

9
framework of society yet with a structure, consistency and momentum of its
own: emerging [. . .], disintegrating and re-emerging at times’ (Edelman, 2005:
336).

2.2.1 against all odds

This paper is grounded in the agrarian question’s theoretical framework as
first posed by Kautsky in 1899. According to Kautsky (1899) quoted by
Akram- Lodhi and Kay the agrarian question is defined as, ‘whether, and how
capital was seizing hold of agriculture and revolutionizing it, making old forms
of production and property untenable and creating the necessity for new ones’
(2010: 179). This raised the question of how the family farm and the peasantry
would fare in a capitalist society, would this inherently result in the demise of
the peasantry. However a century has passed since the formulation of this
theory and the peasantry in some parts of the world persists despite the
penetration of capital into these societies and the increased scale of
globalization. According to McLaughlin (1998: 25) ‘the principal challenge
confronting theorists employing this model is to construct systematic theories
of obstacles that explain the likelihood of alternative historical outcomes given
specific social, economic and environmental conditions’. In the case of Ntalale
village it raises questions of whether economic decline has created new spaces
for agrarian change and new social formations spearheaded by rural nonfarm
economies.
Though there has been a tendency towards proletarianisation in the village
as a coping strategy this has in no way resulted in dispossession of the
peasantry. The relation between capital and labour has come to be central
determinant of rural life in Southern Africa, not because agrarian capital is
strong but because proletarianisation based in nonfarm labour is so deep.
Peasant farmers in Gwanda have in the past decade of economic collapse had
to take up extra income making activities by; selling their labour mostly in
nonfarm activities, distress migration as well as engaging in casual wage labour
in or outside the village as a coping strategy. Scoones et al. (2010: 168)
contends that though migration may be a voluntary or an involuntary
movement and its effects could be reinvestment in agriculture, enterprise or
consumption at the home or migration site. Migration and remittances foster
household farm investment and agricultural production, while in others; the
opposite occurs. Labour availability for farm production may decrease when
family members migrate, but this can be countered by hiring labour by those
households who have the means. The major impacts of migration and
remittances on agriculture and rural employment depend directly on patterns
of expenditure, investments and labour allocation of migrant households, and
indirectly on the multiplier effects of remittances and changes in the labour,
goods and services markets. Receiving households may choose to spend their
additional income on increased consumption, investing in housing, education
and health as well as in entrepreneurial none farm activities, while others may
favour agricultural production. (Vargas-Lundius et al., 2008: 32). Migration in
the case of Gwanda resulted in the loss of labour which some households
failed to counter through hiring of labour as they did not have the resources to
do so and this resulted in decline in farm production. Findings from research

10
conducted in Gwanda show that there has not been any marked increase in
agricultural investments as most respondents were eloquent in pointing out the
unfavourable weather patterns and exorbitant input pricing that has been
besieging the country in the last decade. Remittances and other income sources
appear to have encouraged farming households to reduce agricultural activity
as these households have an income to use as exchange on the commodities
market and service provision.
Akram-Lodhi and Kay (2010: 179) postulate that, ‘with rural livelihoods in
the twenty –first century being constructed on such a vulnerable terrain, could
it be, as Henry Bernstein says, that much is obscured by characterizing social
formations in the South today as peasant societies, or contemporary classes of
petty commodity producing small farmers as peasants’. And it should be clear
according to Bernstein (2001: 32) that the peasantry is hardly a homogenous,
or analytically helpful, social category in contemporary capitalism, in
considering changes in agriculture and rural social existence generated by
imperialism/globalization. The same applies to any views of peasants as a
(single) ‘class’ (exploited or otherwise). The aftermath of the economic collapse
in Zimbabwe is a very peculiar interesting case, capitalistic tendencies have not
dismantled the peasantry but have actually managed to reinforce and
consolidate its existence contrary to what de Janvry (1980: 159) claimed:
There is no theoretical possibility for peasants to remain in their
contradictory class location. However lengthy and painful the process may be,
their future is full incorporation into one or the other of the two essential
classes of capitalism—the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
Though there has been a marked increase in nonfarm incomes in the
region, evidence from field research indicates that peasant farmers despite all
the challenges facing farm activities have maintained some connection with the
farm. Farming remains an important revered tradition to the people of Ntalale.
Byres (1995: 509) in discussing the agrarian question argues that, the nature of
agrarian transition not only has implications for the fate of the countryside, but
has a decisive influence upon the pace, manner, limits, and very possibility of
capitalist industrialization. Could the reliance of the village on nonfarm
incomes be the genesis of the demise of the peasantry in the region?
The case of Ntalale village shows that peasants are differentiated and
respond differently to circumstances to the extent were peasants become
exploitative of each other for accumulative purposes. Hobsbawn (1973: 1)
discussed the general subalternity of the peasant world, claiming that
peasantness was defined by subalternity, poverty, exploitation and oppression.
This paper will however argue that the peasant class in itself is fraught with
internal exploitation, power struggles, resistances and tensions which are
negotiated and battled through the capital market system .Therefore capital
becomes a means to an end of exercising power and control over means of
production. According to Marx (1976) cited in Akram- Lodhi and Kay (2010:
182) accumulation is nothing more than the historical process of divorcing the
producer from the means of production thereby creating a class of workers
that are free (or released) from the means of production and free (and
compelled) to sell their labour power. The result according to Akram- Lodhi
and Kay as Marx indicated ‘is the slow emergence of qualitatively distinct types

11
of rural households which differ in their purpose of production, with one
group producing for the market and accumulation while the other strives for
maintaining subsistence in increasingly difficult circumstances’(ibid: 187).
Therefore households who have the means to accumulate seek to increase their
control and power over productive assets so that they can keep accumulating
while households without propensity to accumulate have to sell their assets to
dynamic producers, in order to be able to cope. This is a perfect scenario to
what is happening to the peasantry in Zimbabwe, were the richer peasants are
buying assets from the poor peasants for their social and economic
enrichment. According to Chimhowu and Woodhouse (2006: 361), there is
growing class differentiation within rural communities, evident not only in
income and housing, but also in the size of herds and land holdings, in the type
of agricultural techniques employed and in the yields achieved. The case of
Ntalale is not any different there have been some major changes in household
structures which now resemble the common town and city houses, increased
mobility from the village to the urban areas, improved farming techniques and
equipment, shifting size of herds.
The peasantry should be understood as a process which is constantly
being reshaped, globalization has altered the land, labour, and capital intensity
of production, reconfiguring the rural production process in ways that may, or
may not, affect the processes that expand the comodification of labour and
alter the purpose of production from production for use to production of
exchange (van der Ploeg, 2010: 2). Peasants with nonfarm incomes in
Zimbabwe use their resources to accumulate possessions which include
physical assets, capital, land and footloose labour of dispossessed peasants and
those seeking work to cope with the difficult times. This new class of rich and
middle peasant has used their resources in a capitalist manner which has
created a new differentiated social formation which is easily discernible in their
accumulated wealth as opposed to the other struggling households who can
barely reproduce themselves with resources available for them. The tendency
to class differentiation arises from the comodification by the peasantry of their
subsistence. It however remains interesting that this scenario was not a gradual
phenomenon in the peasantry of Zimbabwe but has actually been due to
imminent shock the economy of Zimbabwe has suffered in the past decade. In
the present economic situation in Zimbabwe most peasant farmers cannot fully
reproduce themselves on the farm through petty comodification and have had
to take up different kinds of work to supplement their incomes resulting in
highly diversified income portfolios. According to Cousins et al. (1992: 12-13):
An alternative approach to analyzing rural social formations in the region is
to view both proletarianisation and the emergence of petty commodity
production as class trajectories within a capitalist economy, and, furthermore,
to see these as being able to be combined with each other (in complex and
contradictory ways). This possibility yields the composite category of ‘worker-
peasants’, in which simple reproduction is achieved through combining small-
scale agriculture and wage labour.
Below is a class-analytic typology of rural social formations that
foreground the combination of agriculture and wage labour in Zimbabwe
according to Cousins et al. (1992: 13):

12
 Table 1.1: Class analytical typologies

Typology A Typology B Typology C Typology D

Petty commodity Worker Lumpen semi- Rural petty

producers: able to meet peasants: combine peasantry: unable to bourgeoisie: produce a
their simple wages and own reproduce themselves surplus, invest in means
reproduction needs production to secure without external of production,
through their own their simple assistance (family or Engage in expanded
production. reproduction. state) reproduction; often
have an urban or
business-based source
of income

Source: Cousins et al. (1992)

Of the households interviewed in the village of Ntalale 72% fall under
typology B, because of the challenges facing the peasantry on the farm, they
can no longer fully reproduce their needs through their own production on the
farm. There has been a need to diversify incomes by looking to other income
generating ventures off the farm. Households falling under typology C
accounted for 4 %, the household composition of these households were
mostly those of widowed women over the age of 60 who had to take care of
their grandchildren without assistance from the parents who were either
deceased or had migrated to the bordering countries without further contact.
14% of the households fell under typology D and these were mostly
households that are involved in mining and received a constant supply of
migrant remittances and goods. Typology A has not been viable or sustainable
in the past decade of economic erosion and weather calamities.
According to Borras (2009: 18), the dynamics of agrarian transformation
can be understood largely by having a clear grasp of the notion and actual
condition of the social differentiation of the peasantry. Araghi (2009:118) on
the other hand asserts that Marx recognized that the processes of capitalist
development in agriculture can create both peasant dispossession by
displacement, or enclosure and peasant dispossession by differentiation. In the
Zimbabwean case it seems the latter is true, the poor peasant is being squeezed
out of production making way for the new rich peasant to accumulate and
widen their sphere of influence.

13
 Chapter 3 of peasant farmers and economic
decline in Ntalale Village (Gwanda)

3.1 Situational analysis of Gwanda

Road sign: Field picture

Gwanda district is the capital of Matabeleland South region (Zimbabwe).

Gwanda was founded in 1900 and its name was derived from the nearby hill
which is called ‘jahunda’ by the local population. It is located 119 km away
from Bulawayo which is the second capital city of Zimbabwe. Gwanda is the
chief centre for the South-western Zimbabwe cattle district although trading in
agricultural produce is also an important activity. The place is very affluent in
mining mostly in gold, asbestos and chrome. It is strategically located close to
the bordering countries of South Africa and Botswana which would explain
the inclination to migration to cope with economic stress a result of the
adverse macro-economic environment. Zimbabwe is divided into five natural
ecological regions; these regions were demarcated on rainfall patterns, soil
types and vegetation among other physical characteristics. Gwanda lies in
Region 5 which according to Vincent (1960) is to be found in the lowland
areas of both north and south of the country lying up to 900 metres above sea
level and receiving annual rainfalls of less than 650 millilitres. Mostly extensive
cattle and game ranching practiced in these regions though agriculture is also
practiced in the area. Small grain drought resistant seed varieties like sorghum
and millet are the most suitable for this region which is drought prone.

3.1.1 Data Collection and limitations

The study undertaken in Gwanda (Ntalale) seeks to explore how the
economic crises compounded with environmental calamities have been driving
factors towards subsequent de-agrarianisation visible in the region. To cope
with this crisis as field findings reveal, peasant farmers had to diversify their
income strategies by venturing into different economic activities. The
subsequent result of which was an increased differentiation of the different
households in the village. This study does not claim or purport to make
generalisations of these trends in the region given the sample size. However
this study captures the consistent patterns of these trends as derived from the

14
interviews carried within Ntalale and Gwanda in the month of July 2011.
Below is a map showing the location of Ntalale in Gwanda District
Map 3.1: Ntalale village (Ward 11)

Source:
http://ochaonline.un.org/MapCentre/ReferenceMaps/tabid/3057/language/en-
US/Default.aspx
The study in Gwanda was inspired by the fact that even to date there has
been little documentation of the aftermaths of the economic distress peasant
farmers have had to contend with in the past decade of economic meltdown in
Zimbabwe especially in the Matabeleland Region. Yet the region has managed
to survive through the difficult times and progress at the same time
substantiating Sainath (1996: 295) claims that, ‘given a chance, people hit back
at the forces that hold them down. They may have different ways of doing this,
some less effective than others. But fight back they do’.
Collection of data for this research involved a number of activities which
were mostly qualitative in nature. As introduction into the area a transect walk
was undertaken, in definition a transect walk is a ‘systematic walk along one
line (transect) across the community area together with the people involved to
explore the spatial differences by observing, asking, listening, looking and
producing a transect diagram’ (RUAF; 2004: 21). The transect walk was
undertaken before the field study was done in the month of July and it helped
introduce me to the community and its inhabitants. It also helped shape an
aerial view of the village by helping in the collection of information about
resources, farming practices, differences in household structures in an informal
manner where the participants were given the opportunity to share their own
opinions about their views on the research. This activity formed the
background and entry point into the interviews which followed in the village.
An ethnographic approach was used in gathering data in the field, as a
method that attempts to explain the web of interdependence of group
behaviours and their interactions, its main emphasis is importance of
understanding things from the point of view of those involved (O’ Leary, 2010:
115). Primary data collection in the field was mostly done through

15
observations, interviews and administering a questionnaire. Interviews involved
the gathering of insights by different respondents on their understanding of
social and economic differentiation as well as their posited understanding of
livelihood success in the context of their geo-spatial location. The first
interviews were carried out with 6 key informants from the Rural District
Council in Gwanda and the local Ngo’s and 2 key informants were interviewed
within the village of Ntalale-the village chief and councillor. These key
informants were extremely helpful as they created a more logical context of the
area under study and provisioned me with crucial statistical data. Their
personal experience and long standing knowledge of the area was invaluable as
they captured the general trends of de-agrarianisation, social differentiation and
livelihood strategies within a broader framework of the whole area as opposed
to singular household experiences. This helped with shaping main entry points
into the village, which questions to concentrate on, strategic ways of asking the
questions to get more honest responses as well as provisioning me with the
understanding of local issues and deeper understanding of intent for study.
They also gave their own analytic understanding of the situation in the field
and it was very interesting to note how most of their opinions tallied.
Household interviews undertaken were all within the Village of Ntalale in
Ward 11, and for all interviews carried out at least one reliable respondent was
present mostly because research was undertaken off farm season. 15 interviews
were carried out within the village of Ntalale at household level, 80% of the
respondents were women with the other 20% made up of different household
members. Selection of respondent at household level was premised on the
availability of the responsible household head or family member present during
the interview. Selection of households for the interviews was done in a random
manner along the transect line chosen to represent the nature of all households
in the village. All households in the village were legible participants. A
representative transect line was easy to map as homesteads tended to be
clustered around mostly water sources. Interviews were terminated after the
15th household because of the frequent recurrence of trends and patterns of
information gathered. Interviews carried out entailed in-depth semi structured
biographical interviews which examined the respondents on perception on the
invariable changes within their own households as well as the whole village in
the past decade. Most of the households interviewed expressed their need for
confidentiality and therefore no names shall be used in this paper, they shall all
be referred to as respondents in most cases.
These field findings were substantiated by personal observations made
throughout the period of the interviews with both the key informants as well as
the peasant farming households. Also my own personal experience and
knowledge of the area was invaluable during the analysis stage of data gathered.
Secondary data used in this paper was collected from published books;
published peer reviewed journal articles, government articles and national
survey reports, as well as a different collection of data from the internet.
Literature review was important in the structuring and analysis of arguments
presented in the paper.

16
 Limitations
Given time and resources, study was carried out in the shortest possible
time and, therefore research findings presented in this paper inevitable do not
claim reality of the situation but an approximation of the truth. Interviews
were carried out in a tense and politically volatile atmosphere which
necessitated a close censorship of questions asked to respondents as well as
limited access within the village. This affected the quality of information
gathered especially those pertaining to power issues.

3.2 Death to the peasant farm – myth or reality

The rural economy in Gwanda which is mostly premised on livestock,
crop production and derived activities suffered a predictable recession
following the economic crises suffered by the country in the past decade. The
same fate suffered by the country in the 90’s following the drought period of
1992, as Sen and Dreze (1981: 152) aptly describe, ‘the output of food crops
fell to very low levels, cattle mortality increased substantially and the decline of
employment opportunities further aggravated the deterioration of rural
livelihoods’. History has the uncanny way of repeating itself as the country has
had to go through the same fate in the past decade, however this time droughts
were coupled with the economic collapse which saw a decrease in agricultural
investment and production. The diagram below shows the fluctuating maize
yield production in Zimbabwe from 1995 to 2007:
Table 3.1: Maize yields in Zimbabwe (1995-2007)

Crop Year Area (Ha) Yield (kg/ha)

Maize 1995 1 487 606 595
1996 1 459 611 1,415
1997 1 406 074 1,104
1998 1 181 207 1,012
1999 1 477 290 1,087
2000 1 373 117 1,180
2001 1 239 988 1,231
2002 1 327 854 455
2003 1 352 368 783
2004 1 493 810 1,129
2005 1 729 867 529
2006 1 712 999 867
2007 1 445 800 659

Source: Central Statistical Office Harare

Institutions that have always supported traditional farming activities like
the department of agriculture, engineering and veterinary services, District
Development fund and the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority and
the Ministry of Agriculture have failed to continue with their services in the
past decade given the massive brain drain from the country resulting in high

17
turnover as well as loss of funding to continue running their operational
projects (Bryceson, 2002: 727). According to a key informant in the Rural
District Council in Gwanda, agricultural support service has been on decline
due to the negative macroeconomic environment. For example in 1994/95 real
per capita spending on agricultural support services was 26% yet in the 2004
fiscal year the Agritex national budget allocation was just enough to pay the
salaries of the civil servants in the department and nothing else(interview,
24/07/11, Gwanda). The potential of agriculture as the mainstay of the rural
economy has been gradually eroded due to the absence of timely policy
interventions and investments guaranteeing timely input support and broad
extension support which have been lacking in the country in the past decade.
Economic decline in the country seems to have opened up new
opportunities for entrepreneurialism given how off farm activities have
mushroomed in the Gwanda area. The new breed of elite peasant farmer’s has
over the years accumulated more assets as compared to the previous
generation of elites in the area. These assets include motor vehicles, ox-drawn
carts, ploughs, cultivators, and bicycles. Though there is indication of increased
asset ownership in the area including agricultural assets, evidence on the
ground seems to point out that off farm incomes do not necessarily increase
agricultural investments as well as productivity. Most households in the last
decade seem to have spent their off farm incomes on consumptions as
opposed to investment in agricultural activities. Has de-agrarianisation been a
natural process in Zimbabwe or has the economic crisis been responsible for
de-agrarianisation in Gwanda? This is an important question which Bryceson
(2002) counters by arguing that the introduction of Structural Adjustment
Programs in Africa in the mid 1980’s-to mid 1990’s were instrumental in the
trend of de-agrarianisation meaning that the economic crisis in Zimbabwe in
the past decade has been instrumental in fuelling or accelerating de-
agrarianisation and social differentiation.

3.2.1 Brunt of economic decline on peasant farmers in Gwanda

The adverse macroeconomic environment in Zimbabwe since the year
2000 has had spiral trickle down effects on the small holder peasant farmers in
the communal areas. Peasant farmers in the country have always reproduced
themselves on the farm for subsistence as well as commodification whenever
necessary. However with economic collapse and the recurrent droughts these
farming families have had to take up new livelihood strategies to cope with the
poverty that culminated from this situation. Below is a figure showing some
effects of economic decline and droughts on peasant farming families in
Ntalale village:

18
 Figure 3.1: Impact of economic decline and droughts on peasant farmers in Ntalale

 increased input costs

 shortages of cash
 food shortages
 increased migration to bordering countries of Botswana and
South Africa
 malnutrition
 shortages of labour
 decrease in extension services and government support
 low productivity on the farm
 increase in parallel market trading
 curtailed access to credit
 subsidies from the government to the peasant farmers
dried up

Source : data from interviews with farmers and key informants

(Ntalale, July 2011)
Due to shortages of cash, goods and services on the market most farmers
faced difficulties obtaining farm inputs which include seeds, fertilizers, dipping
chemicals for livestock, and draught power for cultivation. In some cases as
highlighted by farmers, even with money that had become an elusive
commodity one could fail to obtain seeds because of un- availability or
astronomic prices on the parallel ‘black market’. According to a key informant
in the Rural District Council of Gwanda (interview, 22/07/11, Gwanda),
subsidies from the government dried up eventually and even when seed
handouts came to the village they were never on time for the planting season
and they became highly politicized which resulted in some villagers being
removed from the beneficiary list.
Hyper inflation did not help but worsened people’s situations as prices
went up as much as five times a day. According to Hanke (2008) hyper
inflation is the rate of inflation per month that exceeds 50%. He further posits
that Zimbabwe’s year on year inflation peaked at a stupendous 89.7 sextillion
percent in November 2008 (79,600,000,000% monthly inflation rate with an
equivalent daily inflation rate of 98%). Hyper inflation meant that prices of
farm inputs and food were pushed beyond the reach of most peasant farmers.
Some farmers resorted to using used grain from previous harvest as seeds and
this affected harvest from the farm. Because of shortage of food, malnutrition
became rife as people were not eating well. In extreme cases people were
surviving on herbs and tree roots and this had a bearing on agricultural
production as people did not have the energy to work on the farm. As one

19
respondent in Ntalale said, ‘to keep soul and body together, we had to resort to
eating herbs and wild fruits as we did not have money to buy food’
(24/07/11).
Shortage of foreign currency also exacerbated inflation because possession
of foreign currency became priceless in an economy with a parallel market with
extremely high exchange rates as highlighted in Table 1.1. Farmers could not
afford to buy cattle dozing, dip medicine and pesticides and most of their
livestock succumbed to diseases. Draught power hiring by farmers without
cattle or donkeys became impossible given the exorbitant pricing by
neighbours. There was also shortage of farm labour as farming households
cannot afford to pay hired labour to counter the serious void created by out-
migration. Valuable time was lost attending political gatherings which became
the norm leading to the year 2007 as explained by a key informant (interview,
10/07/11, Ntalale). Decrease in labour time and input in agriculture was
compounded by fact that agricultural extension officers could not travel to the
villages to assist farmers because of shortage of fuel and poor remuneration, a
lot left their jobs in search of the so called greener pastures creating a vacuum
in knowledge and a gap in agricultural extension service.
It is important at this point however to remember that the efforts of the
peasantry are not governed wholly by the exigencies internal to its own way of
life, ‘a peasantry always exists within a larger system’ (Wolf, 1961: 08). A
system in which to survive, the peasant exploitation thus moves beyond simple
exploiting woods, forestry, and water but looks to self exploitation in form of
labour and exploitation of each other in the name of survival. In the harsh
times characterizing the country of Zimbabwe, the peasantry has had to
redefine itself as individuals and as a group. In the course of cultural evolution
necessitated primarily by change of economic and political environment, the
people of Ntalale village have had to find new forms of livelihoods that go
beyond the farm as a form of income. Reproduction through non-farming
activities however brings the question, at what point do the peasants remain
peasants with any meaningful sense? As the research findings reveal, de-
agrarianisation has increased momentum in the countryside of Matabeleland
Region in the past decade but the major question is, is it complimented by
depeasantisation? According to analytic findings in Gwanda de-agrarianisation
is evident on the ground and has not been an overnight scenario. It appears
even beyond the SAP’s and economic grind down, there are other vital factors
peculiar to the area that have created the diversified nature of incomes and the
trend towards de-agrarianisation in Ntalale village.

3.2.2 Environmental changes

Climate change has become noticeable in the area, areas that used to be
wetlands have dried up, and perennial river flow has decreased. Rainfall
patterns in the area have also drastically changed for example according to the
Agritex supervisor, in 2009-2010 rains were received in April to May when
crops had perished, and the first rains were to early resulting in everything
being scorched by the heat (interview, 22/07/11, Gwanda). According to one
farmer interviewed, ‘we now plant around December were previously we used
to plant in October, and this now varies with seasons and has become a major

20
 challenge for the farmers’ (interview, 20/07/11, Ntalale). Changutah (2010: vi)
in his foreword argues that, ‘the reliance of the vast majority of Zimbabweans
on rain-fed agriculture and the sensitivity of major sectors of the economy to
the climate make Zimbabwe particularly susceptible to climate change’.
According to Ms Mutsa Chasi of the Environmental Management Agency, as
quoted by Russell (2008: 01) ‘a report compiled by the Met Services using 30
years' data collected at stations at Belvedere, Harare, Bulawayo Goetz, and
Beitbridge revealed that rainfall data shows no consistent trend indicating that
changes in temperature and weather patterns were affecting the frequency and
severity of rainfall, droughts, floods, which has impacted on peoples access to
water and is slowly changing the use of land by farmers’.
Droughts as pointed out by 80% of the respondents have resulted in low
agricultural productivity during the farming seasons of the past decade, with 75
% reporting that there is a greater frequency of water deficit years with a later
onset of the rain season and premature rains resulting in a reduced length of
growing period. Below is a table showing people’s awareness to environmental
changes in the last 10 years:
Table 3.2: Awareness to climatic changes

Environmental Changes
16
H) 14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Drought Iregular RP
Variables
Cyclones

Source: authors’ elaboration, created using field findings

Increased T

According to Russell (2008: 1) ‘there has been an increase in the frequency

of droughts since 1990 (90/91, 91/92, 92/93, 93/94, 94/95, 97/98, 01/02,
yes
No

02/03, 04/05, 06/07) and this has resulted in extensive decline in crop yields in
the country’s agricultural sector’. Irregularities and change in weather patterns
have besieged the region, rains no longer fall at expected times which make it
difficult to forecast on whether to start planting or not. This has resulted in
major losses by farmers who have planted at the wrong time unknowingly.
There has been serious drying up of local water sources in Gwanda South
which has also affected irrigation farming plots resulting in decrease of
productivity by farmers using irrigation. Siltation of the major rivers has not
helped the shortage of water situation in the country at all, ‘most of the local
dams have been silted and this is a problem for garden farming as well as

21
watering livestock’ as explained by a key informant (interview, 22/07/11,
Ntalale).

Illustration of siltation in Gwanda South water sources

Zimbabwe has been under the mercies of a failing economic system and
unpredictable weather in the past decade. Apart from the droughts the country
has had to contend with flooding that has become all too frequent since the
country was hit by the cyclone code named Bonita of 1996. The agricultural
sector was paralyzed by cyclone induced flooding in the years of 2000, 2003
and 2007 (Russell, 2008: 2). According to FAO (2003: 12) cyclone Japhet of
2003 was a disaster on agricultural production but improved livestock
conditions which were generally good with good pastures and water availability
in the otherwise dry area. This however did not benefit all peasant farming
households that have livestock because most livestock had perished in late
2002 following the drought period that marked the agricultural season. It
seems all the weather calamities in their extremities have dampened peasant
farmers zest for farming as they are constantly being faced by reality of crop
failure and livestock declining numbers not only due to the weather elements
but also livestock diseases because of decreased access to veterinary services.

3.2.3 Relief aid

According to the chief in the village (interview, 20/07/11, Ntalale)
because of the serious droughts that have plugged the area in the last decade
the government and NGO’s like World Vision and Plan International had to
intervene in the area through provisioning of food aid to alleviate hunger and
food shortages amongst those mostly affected. According to Changutah (2010:
05) humanitarian aid for 2008 was a massive $490 million against a background
of over 90% unemployment and the worst crop failure in the country’s history.
This however had the effect of creating welfarist households that in some
instances down scaled their farm activity to depend on food handouts. Some
farmers as mentioned by a key informant were even known to rent out their
land to some neighbours as well as their draught power and other farm
equipment because they themselves had no use for them (interview, 18/07/11,
Ntalale). According to the Agritex supervisor:
…around 2007 some farmers abandoned farming entirely to survive on relief
aid- a culture of dependency had been created which was instrumental in
pushing some farmers out of farming as it lost its appeal and relevance.
NGO’s created parallel structures to the government; they came in and went
out of communities with no continuity to their operations. Before farmers
could adapt to some of their extension work projects meant to be beneficial

22
 to the farmers, their programs would have come to an end and they moved
out (interview, 22/07/11, Gwanda).

.
Illustration of a relief aid point

There was no integration with government extension officers in the

implementation of these programs. The selection criteria used by NGO’s to
get lists of beneficiaries was criticized by most of the Rural District Council
Officials interviewed as fostering dependency amongst the selected
beneficiaries-“we need poor people” this created a culture of people that
thrived to be recognized in the community as being poor thereby destroying
their capacities to be innovative and map their own survival strategies in the
climate of redundancy. NGO’s seem to have failed to draw out the resource
capacities in the area to promote intervention strategies that promoted
development. They in fact managed to cripple the thinking of some peasant
farmers who chose the easy way out of their dilemma which eventually was not
sustainable but further increased their vulnerabilities. Neefjes (2004: 47) argues
that vulnerable people are those who are more exposed to risk, shocks and
stresses. In this case these farmers who became dependant on relief aid
exposed themselves to aid and have had to suffer from withdrawal symptoms
which most of them have failed to overcome thus plunging their households
into abject poverty and misery.

3.2.4 Mining
The FTLRP of 2000 saw some of the community people become
beneficiaries to mine land claims. The redistribution of land saw the resurgence
of gold panning as some of the beneficiaries of the FTLRP sold some of their
pieces of mine claims to other people in the area or rented them out. Mining
has always been a livelihood strategy in Gwanda, however the difference is that
before the land distribution exercise, these mines were in the hands of the
white commercial farmers. After 2000 some villagers with political influence
and connections were able to get mining rights however those who failed to
get legal mining rights became involved in illegal gold panning. Because of the
high incomes derived from mining and gold panning, households involved in
this activity have down scaled their agricultural activity and become more
reliant on these alternative incomes.

23
 Illustration of a gold panner (‘omakorokoza’)

According to one female respondent whose husband is a gold panner,

‘we are making a decent income out of gold panning and so I just plant the
plot near to my homestead which yields very little given the droughts in the
area’ (interview, 15/07/11, Ntalale). However at least 3 of the households
interviewed with a constant income from gold panning have expanded their
agricultural activities by investing in irrigation farming for purely commercial
purposes.

3.2.5 Effects of HIV/AIDS

According to FAO (2003: 18) statistics from the Ministry of Health
revealed that the AIDS pandemic was officially captured as causing the death
of 2500 people per week in 2000. During the past decade of increased mobility
in Ntalale, there has been an increase in number of households affected by
HIV/AIDS and this has had an impact on peasant farming which depends on
family labour on the farm. The largely seasonal or temporary character of
migration in southern Africa, with migrants returning home to their families on
a regular basis, has facilitated the rapid spread of the virus (Fages, 1999: 40).
Out migration for casual work in bordering countries such as South Africa and
Botswana increased levels of HIV/AIDS related deaths and infections. Lurie,
2001: 23) in explaining the relationship between migration and HIV/AIDS
says:
If one were to design a social experiment in an attempt to create the
conditions conducive to the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted
diseases, you would remove several hundred thousand rural men from their
families, house them in single-sex hostels, provide them with cheap alcohol
and easy access to commercial sex workers and allow them to return home
periodically. These conditions roughly describe the situation for more than
eight hundred thousand gold miners and countless other migrant labourers
working throughout South Africa today.
However not only man have been responsible for the spread of the virus
women have also been known to engage in prostitution as casual employment.
Men working in the mines according to a Rural District Official were known to
take up more than one woman at a time because they had the money to do so
(interview, 18/07/11, Gwanda). Many households have lost the head of house
leaving the burden of caring for orphans and the sick on the grandparents and
the women who also have to tend to the farming for food and income for the
household at the same time. Even with food aid these households have been

24
faced with inadequate food supply and the lack of proper dietary requirements
has resulted to most HIV/AIDS victims succumbing to the virus faster.

From thorns to harvest in diversified economies

3.3 Coping strategies in Ntalale

The case study of Ntalale village demystifies the notion that economic
crisis plunges the masses into heightened poverty, on the contrary it points to
the fact that crisis can be good and rewarding to the development of some
regions. Every person interviewed alluded to the fact that the last decade in the
country has been the toughest in living memory however most were also quick
to add also very rewarding. Diversified incomes have not eroded the traditional
lifestyle of the village but have restructured and consolidated the households of
the village which has had an effect on the social fabric of the community.
Livelihood analysis seeks to interpret how different people gain access to assets
in the pursuit of their livelihoods, according to O’Laughlin (2004: 387), ‘this
must necessarily encompass questions of power and politics as the rules of the
game governing access are of course mediated by power relations’.
Farmers have ventured into different income generating activities ranging
from off farm to on farm incomes. The table below shows some of the income
generating activities undertaken by the different households in Ntalale. Yes is
an indication that the household derives an income from the activity with no
indicating the opposite. Most households interviewed participated in more
than one income deriving activity:
Table 3.3: Diversified incomes of Ntalale

Diversified income portfolios

14
12
10
8
6
4
2 Yes
0
No
H Variables

Source: author’s elaboration created using field findings

25
 The most common coping strategy with the onset of the economic crisis
was distress migration by villagers mostly to the bordering countries of South
Africa and Botswana mostly through cross boarder jumping due to lack of
legal travelling documents like passports and valid visa’s for entry into these
countries. According to the Zimbabwe Monetary Policy Statement of 31
January 2008, the officially recorded foreign currency receipts from migrants
reached an estimated value of US$ 5, 7 million in 2006 and US$ 47, 5 million in
2007. These remittances did not have a large impact on the macro economy
however impact was high at the household level as these remittances were
mostly spent for consumption purposes. According to the MARS3 survey, the
annual median amount of cash remittances received by Zimbabwean
households was US$ 109.30 and in kind remittances amounted to US$54.90. In
kind remittances according to respondents in Ntalale comprised mostly food,
toiletries, household appliances, mobile phones, satellite televisions, clothing
and goods for resale within the village as well as agricultural inputs.

Illustration of cross boarder jumping

About 80 % of the households interviewed have a family member who

migrated mostly to South Africa and Botswana. However the rate of migration
has not been complimented by the equal receipt of cash remittances from
these members. 80% of the households with a family member who migrated
acknowledged receipt of cash and kind remittances at least once or twice in
two months with some recording a more frequent receipt. However 20% of
the households were recorded as never having received any form of remittance
from their family members who have migrated.
Women have also played a very important role as providers for their
families as some of them engaged in cross border trading which was very
lucrative and rewarding as most of the women claimed despite the high labour
involved. Most development initiatives in the area have been attributed to cash
remittances received by the different households, for example most of the

3 In 2004-05 the South African Migration Project (SAMP) conducted a

nationally representative Migration and Remittances Survey (MARS) at
household level in Botswana, Lesotho, Southern Mozambique, Swaziland and
Zimbabwe.

26
small retail business initiatives in Ntalale have been attributed to investments
from cash remittances from migration and mining initiatives undertaken in the
area.
Not all migration was outside the country, some villagers moved to
different areas in search for income opportunities that were cropping up
around the country. Formal employment was very low and wherever present
people were leaving because of the poor salaries that were viewed as
exploitative and ridiculous given the economic situation in the country. People
preferred to engage in informal occupation which was more rewarding and in
some cases enriching. Not all “get rich initiatives” during the time were in line
with the law but some people have managed to get away with criminal activities
with loads of gold falling from their pockets. Falling yields on the farm and the
need to buy food has been a contributory factor to migration particularly of
young male and females of Ntalale village.

3.3.1 Irrigation schemes

Some peasant farmers in Gwanda were beneficiaries of the FTLRP which
saw them become landholders of prime land which had previously been white
owned. Because of climatic changes happening in the region there have been
inconsistent rain patterns in the area that have resulted in droughts over the
past decade. And this has resulted in the increased investment in irrigation
schemes by the government as well as personal initiatives. These irrigation
schemes are mostly on the new resettlement areas and their existence is mostly
for commercial purposes. Those practicing irrigation farming on the former
white owned farms gained during the land redistribution of 2000 hire seasonal
labour which is abundant given that a lot of the peasant farmers now only
partially utilise their farm land and are constantly looking for part time income.
Commoditization is very frequent but not practiced by all peasant farmers,
growing for the market in the past decade has become highly profitable in the
environment of food shortages and low productivity on the farm. Most
farmers producing for the market do not themselves need to subsist from the
farm as they have money to buy food stuffs from South Africa, Botswana or in
Gwanda town or otherwise receive food packages from their migrant family
members. Accumulation of financial resources and assets has become of
paramount importance as opposed to accumulation of stock in the granaries
and livestock traditionally. According to one respondent:
one’s wealth was measured by the stock in the granaries and number of cows
and goats but now wealth is measured more by the value of building
structures, assets like TVs’, decoders, cars, cell phones, ownership of
businesses and cash spending abilities amongst a very long list of
technologically advanced assets now evident in the village (interview,
14/07/11, Ntalale).
Though irrigation schemes have thrived in the past decade, they have also
been met with their own fair share of challenges ranging from fuel shortages
which affected mobility to transport farm produce especially to Gwanda town,
high transport cost in the event of hiring transport, shortages and irregular rain
patterns, highly priced farm implements, constant movements of hired labour

27
some who just left without any prior notice, siltation of the two major dams in
the area caused by river bank cultivation. Despite all the challenges, irrigation
farming has been very profitable to farmers under the schemes and has
enhanced the economic standing of these families in the community of
Gwanda.

3.3.2 Garden plots

Garden or greens plots as referred to by a key informant in Ntalale
(interview, 15/07/11) are a thriving business which has carried many families
through the difficult times in the village. These garden plots are mostly under
the care of women who do all the work in these plots. The most common
things grown on these plots are vegetables, tomatoes, green peas, onions,
chilli’s and pumpkins. Though some of the produce is consumed in the homes
most of it is for resale in the surrounding communities. One female
respondent had this to say:
Though we have not got rich from our garden plots, we have managed to get
a decent income to buy food, send our children to school and sometimes buy
seeds and fertilizer for our fields (interview, 11/07/11, Ntalale).
About 78% of the households interviewed owned a garden plot in the
area and mostly were taken care of by women. These garden plots have been
instrumental in the economic empowerment of women in the village as they
now have an income to use for their own needs. Vegetable growing not only
provides households with an alternative income, vegetable growing has
promoted the improvement of the local diet.

3.3.4 Mining
Some villagers have ventured into small claims gold panning on previously
white owned mines that were re-distributed under the FTLRP in 2000. Gold
panning has become a very important income deriving source for some of the
villagers in Ntalale as shown in figure 1. Some households interviewed that
engage in gold panning revealed that through use of incomes derived from
panning, they have managed to accumulate resources in the past decade.
According to one respondent:
Some lucky gold panners have become overnight sensations by striking
sizeable amounts of the precious mineral gold which they sell through
middlemen traders and transactions are normally done illegally because the
market value price on the formal market is lower than the one offered on the
parallel market (interview, 18/07/11, Ntalale).
Some mining investments have been very profitable and some households
have managed to accumulate a lot of assets that at times include agricultural
investments, livestock, building and household assets.

3.3.5 Other diversified incomes

According our research findings in Ntalale, hiring out own labour to on
the farm and off farm for cash and kind remittances is very common. These

28
range from clearing fields, harvesting, ploughing, heading livestock (cattle and
goats), gathering firewood, guarding small grain fields by constantly chasing
quail birds through making noises or practically chasing them away, household
errands like washing and cooking and cleaning the homestead. These menial
tasks are engaged in by both female and male villagers looking to make an extra
income for their own personal use. Relief aid though very common especially
in the period of 2007/8 has now been replaced by food for work programs
which are encouraging development as opposed to welfarism (NGO official,
interview, 19/07/11, Gwanda). Most of the villagers expressed their
appreciation of these programs that are promoting self help and development
in their village as opposed to creating dependence of villagers on food aid, a
situation that had become very common in Ntalale in previous years.
Research findings also revealed that, small businesses like wielding
(making burglar bars, door frames, window frames), brick moulding, small
retail businesses are also very affluent in the area, and most of the people in
these activities are those of between 17-46 age groups. Selling of livestock has
become a fundamental source of income for those households who own
different livestock. In 2007 according to a key informant:
Most households are engaging in barter trading with their livestock in
exchange for grain though this has been uneven and skewered in the past
decade. Most farmers lost their livestock to unscrupulous traders who took
advantage of the desperate situation most farmers where in, for example for a
50kg bag of maize you would part with one cow and for a 10kg bag of maize
you would part with a goat (interview, 21/07/11, Gwanda).
Not only external traders were involved in this extortionist behaviour
some people in the village have been noted to have accumulated their wealth
through this activity. This has resulted in resentment in some cases were a
villager has now to watch what used to be their herd of cows now safely in
another villagers kraal. Though farm production has been on the decline in the
past ten years, in good farming season’s households mostly practising irrigation
farming and conservation farming had good harvests and they managed to get
an income by selling their surplus produce from the farm to their neighbours
and other villagers and in some cases engaged in barter trading. Conservation
farming according to Mazvimavi et al. (2008: 1) ‘is agriculture that can be
practiced by small holder farmers using small implements such as the hand hoe
to create planting basins, in general it is any tillage sequence that minimizes or
reduces the loss of soil and water and achieves at least 30% soil cover by crop
residues’.
Four households interviewed confidentially said they had managed to rent
out land in return for a fee or a portion of the harvest from the piece of land
farmed. People seem to have come up with all manner of activities in the quest
of getting a much needed income. Selling Mopani worms whenever they are in
season is also a very profitable venture in the area, some of the villagers travel
as far away as the capital Harare because they are in demand and they can get a
better price there. Income diversification in economic stress situations creates
inequalities because consumption and investment patterns by the different
households are different. It is important to realise that within any vulnerable
population, uptake of diversified incomes does not happen at a uniform scale

29
and the process is very heterogeneous. The nature of livelihood strategies
implemented to cope with economic stress do not yield the same income
returns to the different households in Ntalale because of their diversity,
therefore though almost all households in Ntalale have taken up at least one
livelihood strategy to survive in the harsh economic decline, not all have
managed to rise above the prevailing poverty which was exacerbated by the
parallel market system operational in the past decade increasing inequalities
and differentiation within the village of Ntalale.

30
Chapter 4 De-agrarianisation-but no de-
peasantization

4.1 The cultivated lands and grazing livestock of Ntalale

There has been a decrease in unit area of farm land cultivated in the area
in the past decade and this trend seems to have increased in the years 2004-
2010. Agricultural productivity though important to the economy of Gwanda
South has suffered massive decline in the past decade. Subsequent decline in
cultivated land and farm productivity has been attributed to the droughts,
shortage of cash to buy farm implements, and the removal of subsidies for
peasant farmers. Environmental changes in the climate of the region was
mentioned by most of the respondents as being also instrumental in the
diversification of livelihood given decrease in agricultural production.
According to one farmer:
Even after the dollarization of the economy when we can now get goods and
services on the market the droughts and irregular rain patterns have made
farming impossible. Consecutive droughts have demoralized farmers from
farming as they used too back in the day when to live and survive in the
village was to farm (interview, 12/07/11, Ntalale).
Land tenure in the area is dictated by customary law which states that land
cannot be sold outright. Therefore the only way to derive an income has been
through renting out land to villagers who had the inputs to work the land. This
was in return of cash or an agreed portion of the harvest. Some farmers had a
subsequent increase of farm holding in 2000 after they were beneficiaries to
the FTLRP in Zimbabwe. These farmers have done considerable well in
agricultural production because the lands that they inherited were prime lands
which were mostly under irrigation. Farmers practising irrigation farming have
not been affected as much by the droughts because they have access to water
and have used this as a comparative advantage by increasing their
commodification of farm produce in the era of considerable food shortages.
Shortage of labour in households has also been a reason noted as
resulting in decrease in cultivated area in Ntalale resulting in huge tracts of
farm land lying fallow or underutilized. Migration was instrumental in the loss
of family labour which is core to agricultural production in peasant farming.
Faced with inability to hire labour some farmers now cultivate plots closer to
their homesteads because they are smaller and more manageable than distant
fields. Draught power is an important aspect to peasant farming in Gwanda,
however not all families have draught power and hence have to hire from
neighbours or other villagers in the community. This has proved a great
challenge as some peasant farmers did not have the cash to hire and even when
they did they could only get access to the draught after the owners were done
with their own fields which became problematic as this was mostly after the
first rains of the farming season.
Small grain seed varieties like sorghum and millet are the most suitable for
the region, however farmers prefer to plant maize which is not really suitable

31
for the climatic conditions. Therefore in extremely dry years farmers have had
small productivity in their maize fields. According to a key informant, ‘farmers
who have managed to be productive on their farms are those who continue to
plant the traditional drought tolerant small grain seed varieties’ (interview,
19/07/11, Ntalale). Maize seems only to thrive on the irrigation scheme plots
and in the garden plots because they do not only rely on rain fed rain but also
on irrigation. Because of consistent poor productivity on the farms most
farmers have lost their zest for farming and leave most of their farm plots
fallow during the farming seasons. According to most of the key informants,
decrease in government subsidies and poor market buying prices of farm
products in the past decade by the Grain Marketing Board have also been
instrumental in the heightening despondence to farming and livestock rearing
by the villagers.
Livestock rearing is an important part to the economy in Matabeleland
Region. However the economic collapse and recurrent droughts have resulted
in the dwindling size of livestock ownership by the people of Ntalale.
Droughts and inability to buy pesticides and dipping chemicals fundamental to
rid the livestock of diseases wiped out most of the communities livestock in
the past few years. Livestock was also sold for cash or barter trade to get access
to food and money which was used for household sundry expenses. Farmers
who were beneficiaries during the FLTRP and had various incomes have
managed to invest in livestock rearing given they have more grazing fresh
nutritious land just inherited from the dispossessed white farmers. Some of
these new resettled farmers have also been innovative in getting extra income
from their land by hiring it out to the other peasant farmers for grazing their
livestock at an agreed individual fee. Shortage of fertile pasture land in the
drought years has discouraged some peasant farmers from investing in cattle
rearing; farmers with financial resources are investing more in smaller livestock
like goats and chickens that do not require huge fodder areas. Livestock
ownership is seen as investment and insurance to safeguard against difficult
times by most peasant farming households in Ntalale. Nomadic grazing and
synthesized stock feeds have been cattle rearing strategies used by peasant
farmers with the necessary financial and human resources to continue the
activity. Nevertheless livestock rearing has become increasingly vulnerable as
more and more households have sold, traded, or slaughtered their livestock to
cope with the extended economic crisis. Though some farmers have
abandoned farming this does not mean that they have lost their land or that
they have moved out of the rural area only that they have left the land fallow
for during some farming seasons opting for other forms of income generating
activities.

4.2 Is agriculture still important in the village of Ntalale?

Given the diversified portfolios of Ntalale village, it would be easy to
assume that agriculture has lost its importance amongst the people and is
becoming a relic. However field findings point to the fact that agriculture is
still important though not much income and productivity has been derived
from it in the past decade of economic decline and droughts. Most households
interviewed maintained that agriculture is still an integral part of their lives and

32
they are not willing to entirely move away from the farm despite the various
challenges agriculture has faced in the past decade. Though most households
have been forced to diversify to cope with the times this has improved their
well being and lifestyles. One respondent had this to say:
We thank God for the problems that have besieged the nation in the last
years, because if it were not for these problems some of us would still be
living in abject poverty and misery without hope of change to our situation.
The time of troubles has made us to look beyond our comfort zones and to
see that life does not start and end in farming but can be complimented by
other activities (interview, 22/07/11, Ntalale).
The people have no inclination to abandon the village life but they are
spurred by the need to develop themselves so that they are not looked down
upon by other classes of people in society. Most farmers went as far as
maintaining that if given sufficient inputs on the farm and if there were
adequate rains they would really get back to farming with all their hearts. The
shift in incomes has generated a lot of changes such as dwelling structures
from the traditional mud huts to brick houses, and accumulation of what
normally would be called town assets (televisions, satellite dishes, electrified
homesteads, cell phones, cars) hence there still is an interesting mix caused by
these new changes with the old lifestyle of the rural areas. Though
innovativeness pervades the area people still stick to their traditional beliefs
and values of old. The economic crisis has not resulted in the decay to poverty
in the village however it spurred the people to progress themselves by using
new ideas to sustain and improve their lifestyles. With the genesis of the
changes most villagers have been working towards being more improved in
their status as no one once to be referred to as poor anymore. For some poor
households without alternative income agriculture is still the mainstay of their
survival, they have to scrap out as much as they can get from the land and
defeat all odds or face hunger or otherwise become beggars in the community.
These households as typified by Cousins et al. (1992: 13) would fall under
typology C of Lumpen semi-peasantry: unable to reproduce themselves
without external assistance (family or state).
Reasons leading to the seemingly disinterest in farming have mostly been
because of the challenges agriculture has been facing in the country. It is safe
to assume that without the challenges in the past decade people would still be
very much into farming with little diversification as opposed to the situation on
the ground present day. Not all crises are bad is something positive in every
negative. Peasants have not been pushed entirely out of farming however the
economic crisis has created opportunities for diversification into other
livelihood strategies that have improved their livelihoods. Peasant farmers have
persisted with farming despite the economic hardships coupled with climatic
disasters that have besieged the country in the last decade. People now believe
in working as opposed to constantly waiting for government and NGO
handouts. It is interesting to note that the younger generation in the village is
opting out entirely from agriculture in preference to off farm work. With the
older generation sticking firmly on the farm, for example just before the rainy
season the elders of the village still go to the ancient shrine of Njelele to ask
for the rains from ‘Mwali’ their God.

33
 Diversification of incomes in rural areas has not led to the disappearance
of the peasantry in Gwanda South; on the contrary it has expanded the rural
economy by expanding income portfolios. According to Kearney (1996)
‘improving the quality of rural life might lead to avoidance of the twisted
modernist mentality, whereby the peasant is viewed as a doomed figure, who is
not able to face the present and future challenges of the society, therefore his
destiny is historical disappearance’. The peasant class in Gwanda despite the
out migration to the bordering countries still persists and there is no evidence
pointing to its demise. Most of the community that out migrated still has its
roots in the village, there is constant to and from movement by the migrants
from their casual employment in the bordering countries and their home
village. According to a key informant, most of these migrants have homes and
pieces of land that they always comeback to once they finally decide they have
had enough of being away from home (interview, 21/07/11, Ntalale). Maybe it
is just not yet time to bid adieu to the peasantry in the region of Matabeleland
south.

4.3 Change not demise-dawn of a new peasantry

The impact of liberalisation processes following the adoption of the Structural
Reform Programme of the 90’s became the landmark of the trend towards de-
agrarianisation and livelihood diversification by the communal farmers in
Zimbabwe. With the implementation of ESAP as Bryceson (2002)
hypothesised, the proportion of food deficit households increased. However
the difference to this trend with Ntalale in the past decade is that in the 90’s
agriculture remained the major source of income though supplemented by
other livelihood strategies. Below is a table showing income rankings in Ntalale
in the 1990’s:
Table 4.1: Income rankings in Ntalale in the 1990’s

Source of
income Rank
Sale of livestock 1
Sale of sorghum, maize, groundnuts 2
Hiring out
labour 3
Beer
brewing 4
Sale of goods from neighboring
countries 5
Garden
farming 6
Remittances 7

Source: Own elaboration using field data

4.3.1 The ‘old’ elites

Social relations within class dynamics are governed by the way in which
property is distributed (land) divisions of labour, distribution of incomes as
well as the inherent patterns of consumption and accumulation. Access
depends on individual participation in a variety of social institutions as well as

34
self positioning towards access to productive resources. The old elite class in
Ntalale is in no way peculiar to these social dynamics, field data findings reveal
that this elite class before the year 2000 comprised people holding important
community positions like chiefs, district administrators, headmasters, teachers,
village herdsman as well as government extension officers. Access to means of
production and resources remains a fundamental ingredient for differentiated
accumulation of resources across households. Below is a table showing some
the major characteristics of the old peasant elites:
Table 4.2: Characteristics of the old elite

Characteristics of the old elite prior to the year 2000

 Acce ss to resources skewed by political capture by powerful individ uals.
 Mo nopoly of power-distribution of resources to kin and friends .
 Preferential access to funding by actors with position s on bo dies such as
D istrict co un cils an d VIDC O's .
 State power used to manipulate rules o f access to land, lab our and capital by
influen cin g legislation adm inistrative practices or the o utcomes of judicial
procedur es.
 Form ation of party b ased conditions as precondition o f do in g business
successfully.
 Social identity and status depended on ascribed and achieved qualificatio ns.
 Mem bership in social groups and rank used as instrum ents of accum ulation .
 C ontrol over p ro duc tive resources depen ded o n one's ability to dominate o r
influen ce oth ers and could be claimed.
 I ncomes m ostly derived from agriculture.
 I ndicators o f wealth -land area, cattle holding, farm equipm ent o wned for
example (n um ber of scotch carts),
 N um ber of wives an d children, number of h ired labour e.t.c.
 Elites reliant from accumulatio n from above as prom oted by patronage
politics.

Source: own elaboration combining Cousins (1992), Berry (1989) complimented with field data (July 2011)

The old elite used their influence for accumulating possessions as well as furthering
their own political interests by patronizing decision making within the community. The
characteristics of the old elite as described in the above table are not only relevant to
this group, with the dawn of the new elite peasant class there is a replication of some
of these trends in the quest of accumulation and influencing decision making. With the
economic decline following the land invasions of 2000, most of the old elites where
unable to hold onto their accumulated fortunes which gradually ebbed in the harsh
macroeconomic environment which resulted in industrial collapse as well as the decline
in agricultural productivity further destabilized by the recurrent droughts of the past
decade. The rising costs of inputs and droughts resulted in perpetual food deficits
which pushed peasant farmers to sell their accumulated assets as well as their stock of
grain for survival. The households that failed to get social and institutional means to
exploit their labor and land though not dispossessed of their physically means of
production where exposed to poverty and had to find alternative means to survive.
Alternative livelihood strategies ranged from selling their own labor to having one meal
a day.

35
4.3.2 Social changes in Gwanda in the past decade
The past decade in the history of Ntalale has ushered in different social changes in
the organization and way of life of the peasant farmers. The economic and agricultural
crisis in the past decade has witnessed the evolving social dynamics within the
countryside. Relationships have become highly commercialized due to the increased
penetration of the market system in the villages. With food shortages, cash supply
shortages, foreign currency shortages and the decline in agricultural productivity the
rural community has had to rely more and more on the market system for goods and
services. Strategies of production and accumulation have been directed towards
establishing and strengthening social relations which were cultivated to influence the
terms on which people gain access to resources (Berry, 1989: 48). This reinforces my
argument that in the economy of crisis peasant farmers have not been above exploiting
each other for the purposes of accumulation and gaining social status. Diversification
into different livelihood strategies ushered in changes within the community, with
different income brackets came the deepening of differentiation within the peasant
farmer class as well as the altering of demographic profiles.

4.3.3 Changes in Demographic profiles

Migration and constant movements by the villagers in search of income generating
activities has resulted in a change in the household demographic profiles in the village
of Ntalale. 85% of the households interviewed were mostly composed of the age
groups 0-16 years and 45 and above age groups. This is the normal trend as highlighted
by a key informant in Gwanda, though it does not mean that all of the age group of
17-44 is missing. Most of the villagers falling within the age group of 17-44 years have
migrated temporarily and in some instances permanently to boarder countries of South
Africa, Botswana, beyond African borders as well as in local cities of the country.
Table below shows the age frequency in the households interviewed in Ntalale
Table 4.1: Age frequency in households

Source: authors elaboration created using field data

Most of the households in the village face a major challenge of labour shortage due

36
 to the out migration and constant mobility of the family members. An interesting case
in the area as highlighted by almost all key informants was the nature of outmigration.
In most African countries the normal trend is to have more men moving out of the
village in times of stress in search for different employment. However in this instance
there seems to be a 50-50 ratio of males and females leaving the village in search of
livelihood strategies to cope with the crisis. Table below shows the migration trends of
males and females within interviewed households:
Table 4.2: Migration trends in males and females in Ntalale

Migration
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2 male
1.5
F 1
0.5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Household

Source: author’s elaboration created using field data

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

The older generation sees no reason for moving out of the village as they
are settled and comfortable in their way of life. Some of them are getting
support from their children and extended family to have any inclinations and
thoughts of moving out of the rural area. There has been a decrease in
population as acknowledged by some of the key informants, which leaves the
older generation shouldering most of the work which would normally be
attended too by the younger generation who are at the moment absent. This
trend supports Riggs (1998: 502) claims that, ‘it is not uncommon to find
younger people engaged in nonfarm activities while older cohorts continue to
work the land’.

4.3.4 The ‘new’ elites

female

Each crisis has its own winners and losers, it is easy to assume that crisis is
tantamount to poverty however as the case of economic decline in Zimbabwe
has proved; crisis can be good. Crises or cases of economic distress create
opportunities for accumulation, not everyone benefits from these
opportunities as access to productive resources and assets is determined by
political, economic and social dynamics. During the past decade different
households in the village of Ntalale have diversified their incomes by
negotiating access to resources through forming political alliances, economic
alliances as well as social alliances. People sought access to new sources of

37
wealth and power through existing institutional channels, using their
accumulated wealth and influence in ways which restructured old institutions
and social relations rather than to destroy them (Berry, 1989: 44). Because of
the hyper inflation in Zimbabwe and high levels of patronage, key resources in
a highly distorted environment, such as cheap credit and foreign currency at
the official rate, were allocated to selected individuals and groups, enabling
them to amass enormous levels of wealth in a very short space of time. Those
with political clout borrowed heavily from the banks and then declined to pay,
waiting for inflation to remove the burden of the original debt (Robinson,
2007).
Different accumulation rates of resources have resulted in a visible
differentiated community where there are obvious signs of who is doing better
than the rest. And this is measurable by the possession of assets like livestock,
cars, cell phones, solar panels, in some cases electrification of rural households
as well as building of houses that are modelled on those from the city. The
more money you accumulate the more your influence in decision making in the
village. It is interesting to note that according to most respondents, some of
the new rich elites have become rich by exploiting other people in the
community; through exploitation of labour and manipulation of prices.
Accumulation of wealth has become a measure of success in the area; there is a
clear distinction in the society of the rich, the poor and the middle class.
Those who used opportunities have become very influential in the area of
Ntalale, they influence implementation of development projects in the village
because they have resources to fund them –there is however a measure of
resentment displayed by those who used to be the decision makers the former
‘old’ elites. As Berry (1989: 41) postulates, ‘people’s ability to generate a
livelihood or increase their assets depends on their access to productive
resources and their ability to control and use them effectively’. With this in
mind, it is therefore not surprising to find that tensions between the old and
new rich elite in Ntalale are not explicitly fought out. The less successful
people in the village have found that to gain access to means of production
they have to cooperate with the new elites. These new rich elites have
increased their decision making power and influence in community as they
own the resources to sway people to their own way of thinking in the
attainment of their individual interests and goals.
Though these new rich elites do not necessarily have authoritative titles
like chief, district administrator they have the resources to be seen and to be
heard. They are known to advise these official authoritative figures behind
closed doors as well as influence decision making of NGO’s and their various
projects as they are in the position to influence the community. These elites are
mostly the ones that are elected to new committees for example the Water
Point Committee as people think they have what it takes to represent them
effectively in these committees. Some of the new rich elite have gone to the
extent of using their resources to increase their influence through forging
political alliances with any of the two major political parties in the country this
has been done through influencing or buying support from local villagers as
‘money buys everything, even people’ as reiterated by a respondent (interview,
15/07/11, Ntalale). Of those old elites who did not progress over time, they
have lost their bargaining power and ability to influence decision making even

38
when they do hold traditional titles. The table below shows the shifts in
income patterns from 1990-2010 in percentages:
Table 4.3: Income patterns in Ntalale from 1990-2010

Livelihood income source 1990- 1996- 2002- 2007-2010

1995 2001 2006
Livestock sales 50 48 42 32
Crop sales 28 8 12 10
Vegetable production 20 20 21 25
Migrant remittances - 15 25 36
Gold panning 23 10 10 6
Vending - 5 2 1
Fishing 5 1,9 - -
Beer brewing 2 0,1 - -
Hiring out labour 14 22 38 47

Source: author’s elaboration using data from the Gwanda RDC

Households that have become more influential and rich derived their
incomes from mining, migrant remittances and hiring out labour. However
households composed of the older people of age group 60 and above failed to
take part in these economic opportunities and therefore remain poor. As one
respondent mentions:
We have become poorer and we are looked at as beggars and given handouts
by the rest of the villagers (interview, 21/07/11, Ntalale).
Decrease in gold panning and fishing activity in households has been
attributed to the increased humanitarian aid in the district which hit a high in
the year of 2007. Some households became dependant on aid thus decreasing
their production capacity on the farm and other livelihood strategies. Such
distinct livelihood patterns have resulted in a socially differentiated peasant
where it is easy to separate the rich from the poor. Respondent’s perception
about wealth and differentiation was premised on the accumulation of assets
and capital by the different households in the village. According to a key
informant though there is no documented data, the number of rich households
in Ntalale have increased by approximately 36% in the past decade and this
increase is mostly attributable to cash remittances that increased with more out
migration from the area.
Crisis does not spell the end, in a climate of economic decline and
recurrent droughts, opportunities for accumulation of resources have
presented themselves and the fortunate are reaping the benefits. Livelihood
diversification has changed the setting and development rates for different
households in Gwanda South in the process creating new spaces and
opportunities towards agrarian transition. With change new questions arise
proving in fact that all relations are dynamic and can be constantly shaped and
reshaped.

39
Chapter 5 Conclusions

This paper explores the dynamics of economic decline and its effects on
the peasant class farmers in Ntalale village. Arguments raised were premised on
the notion that economic crisis and severe droughts do not have to spell the
end of the peasantry and neither does it spell abject poverty. Conclusions
from the field findings question the dialectic behind the peasant as a class for
itself and in itself. The peasant class of farmers in Ntalale does possess the
characteristics of the peasantry as postulated by Shanin (1976). However a lot
is obscured by fitting heterogeneous households within a singular paradigm.
Foucault as discussed by Spivak (1998) raises concerns of power as discourse
creating a system of statements within which the world can be known. In so
doing the peasant class remains the subaltern (of low rank) thereby
provisioning an allegory of its displacement and its inescapable demise. The
‘peculiar’ case of Ntalale village as has been referred to in the paper, proves
that the penetration of capital within the community has not been tantamount
to depeasantisation but has created opportunities for the survival of the
peasantry in a macroeconomic environment of industrial collapse, market
distortions and recurrent droughts.
Discursive productions of knowledge on the peasantry perpetrate the
notions of the peasantry as a class exploited from without, however in this
paper the argument is that exploitation of resources (labour, land, capital e.t.c)
is also internal, that is ‘peasant exploiting peasant’. In the harsh economic
environment of the past decade peasant households have had to grab at
different income strategies to maintain their livelihoods and this has involved
entrepreneurism involving manipulation of prices, distortion of wages and
salaries. In essence the peasant households with opportunity or monopoly over
certain goods and services used this to their comparative advantage thereby
increasing their accumulation rates and enhancing the differentiation process in
the village.
Differentiated capacities lay in the ability to forge political, social and
economic connections. For example some peasant households increased their
accumulation rates through political connections, this enabled them access to
relief aid, access to agricultural inputs and markets. This reiterates Bernstein’s
(2001: 31) assertion that much is masked by characterizing social formations in
the global south today as peasant societies, or contemporary classes of petty
commodity producing small farmers as peasants. The peasantry is not a torpid
phenomena, it is a dynamic process which is continuously evolving and
adjusting to different circumstances like globalization, dynamic market systems
as well as redefinition of social relations within any contemporary society.
The penetration of the capitalist system within Ntalale in the past decade
has not dispossessed the peasantry from their land or divorced it entirely from
the means of production this is attributed to the land tenure in the area. Land
is customarily owned meaning that individuals cannot sell the land, however in
a climate which is inclined towards accumulation, some peasant households
have been able to make a profit from the land through informal land rentals.
The connection to the farm persists even as there is a decline in farm

40
production and unit area of land cultivated in the area. The logical explanation
to this trend according to most respondents is that, embracing new
opportunities of survival has enabled the peasant households to maintain their
existence within their own familiar territory. The farm is part of the cultural
rubric fibres that symbolizes the ethical beliefs and values of the peasant
household farmers in Ntalale. The farm defines their existence therefore even
as the sun burns red hot they continue to toil on the lands of their forefathers.
Existence of other alternative incomes has ensured that they are not displaced
from their cultural heritage.
Field findings reveal that accumulation is directly proportional to
differentiation because accumulation rates are not homogenous and also not all
households had the opportunity to accumulate in the past decade. The
unproportional accumulation rates have resulted in a clear demarcation of the
wealthy and the poor households, the rich are rich and the poor are poor.
Diversification into different livelihood strategies has not eroded the
importance of agriculture in the rural economy of Ntalale, all households still
practice farming on different scales what has changed is that income derived
from the activity is not enough to subsist upon given the economic and
climatic challenges. This finding accentuates Yaro’s (2006: 1) argument that
‘de-agrarianisation is a process embedded in social change, bearing in mind the
reversibility between farm and nonfarm livelihood strategies used by different
households’. The case of Ntalale demystifies the notion that penetration of
capital within the peasantry and the family farm would be the inevitable demise
of the peasant class. The peasantry is still alive and will still live to see yet
another day, proving that not all crisis is bad.

41
APPENDICES Questionnaire
Confidential

RESTRUCTURING OF THE PEASANT CLASS IN

NTALALE VILLAGE (ZIMBABWE)

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS – GWANDA

This research interview seeks to investigate how the economic decline in

Zimbabwe in the last decade has restructured the peasant class and changed
their livelihood strategies. Coping strategies employed by different households
shall be investigated as well as the subsequent results of these strategies on
farming activities. Your participation in the interview is humbly requested and
please note issues of confidentiality shall be observed.

Date of interview District/ward Village

Respondent code

Section A
Respondent and general household information
Gender of interviewee
Age of Interviewee
Marital status
Employment status
Is respondent household head
If not relationship to household head, determine whereabouts of house-
hold head
Gender of household head

2) Household composition
Male Female
No of members aged less than 16
No of members aged < than 16
No of members aged above 65
No of members working on farm full time
No of members working off farm part time
No of members who have migrated to city or outside
country between years 2000-2010
No of those who migrated but have returned

42
 Comments
…………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………...

Subsequent questions for the above

How did the economic downturn affect your livelihood?
What were the immediate coping strategies with this time?
Have these coping strategies been maintained?
How have these strategies changed your economic and social positioning?

SECTION B
3) Land size being utilized- for the past 10 years

culti-
ow total rented vated land- fallow oth-
nership land-ha land-ha ha land-ha ers

1 1 1
Year 0 5 0 0 5 10 0 5 10 0 5 10 0 5 0
owned
rented
in
rented
out
sold/bo
ught

Comments
…………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………

43
 Subsequent questions
What is the explanation to the increase/decrease in land holding, in-
crease/ decrease in cultivated land, increase/decrease in fallow land?
How important is agriculture in the household, now and before the eco-
nomic downturn?
If given more land and inputs would the household increase their farm
productivity?
What other reasons have contributed to the decrease in farm production?

4) Livestock ownership
Livestock Number Reason for change
Year 0 1
0 5 10
Oxen
Cows
Donkeys
Goats
Chicken
Other

Comments

………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
Subsequent questions
How important is livestock rearing in the household compared to farm-
ing?
Has the increase/decrease in farmland changed the status of the house-
hold in the community?

44
 5) Crops grown (2000-2010)

crop Grown Grown Unit area In-

every farming for food/cash planted in crease/decrease in
season hectares farm size

Comment
…………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………

Subsequent question
What is the explanation for the increase/decrease in unit area of crop
planted over the years?
If there is increase in crops grown for cash establish were food is ob-
tained?

45
 SECTION C
6) Household income
In- Do Re- Impor- Comment
come you receive cipient of tance of
source remittances remittances source
from these Rank-
sources ing from 1-
5,with
1 as the
highest
Sale of
crop
Sale of
livestock
Off
farm part
time
Off
farm full
time
Mi-
grant re-
mittances
Own
business
Gold
panning
Oth-
ers

Comments
…………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………

46
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………

7) How do you use this income?

Food, clothing, farm inputs, livestock, invest in business e.tc
…………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………
Respondent’s perceptions on social change ushered in by increase
in diversified livelihood portfolios
…………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………

SECTION D
Observations made
Household structures, livestock, machinery, tv’s & radios, perceived well
being of household e.t.c

47
 …………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………
Remember to thank the respondent and don’t make any false prom-
ises under false pretence 

48
REFERENCES

Akhram-Lodhi, A.H. and C. Kay. (2010) ‘Surveying the agrarian question (part1):
unearthing foundations, exploring diversity’, Journal of peasant studies 37(1): pp 177-
202.

Araghi, F. (2009) ‘The invisible hand and the visible foot: peasants, dispossession and
globalization’. In H. Akhram- Lodhi and C. Kay (eds) Peasants and globalization:
political economy, rural transformation and the agrarian question, pp 111-47. London:
Routledge.

Barrett, C.B., T. Reardon and P. Webb. (2001) ‘Nonfarm income diversification and
household livelihood strategies in rural Africa: concepts, dynamics, and policy
implications ’, Food Policy 26: pp 315–331.

Bernstein, H. (2001) ‘The peasantry in global capitalism: who, where and why? The
ends of anachronism’, Socialist register

Berry, S. (1989) ‘Social institutions and access to resources’, Journal of the

African Institution. International African Institute: Cambridge University
Press

Biti, T. (2009) ‘The 2009 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review Statement: STERP in
motion’, Presented to the Parliament of Zimbabwe by The Hon. T. Biti M.P.,
Minister of Finance, Harare, Government of Zimbabwe, (16July).

Borras, S.M. Jr. (2009) ‘Agrarian change and peasant studies: changes,
continuities and challenges –an introduction’, Journal of peasant studies
36(1): pp 5-31.

Bryceson, D.F. (2004) ‘Agrarian vista or vortex: African rural livelihood policies’,
Review of African Political Economy, 31 (102), pp 617-629.

Bryceson, D.F. (2002) ‘The Scramble in Africa: Reorienting Rural Livelihoods’, World
development 30(5) pp 725-739.

Bryceson, D.F. (1996) ‘Deagrarianization and rural development in sub Saharan

Africa: A sectoral perspective’, World Development, 24(1): pp 97- 111.

Byres, T. (1995) ‘Political economy, agrarian question and comparative method’,

Economic and Political Weekly 30, pp 507-13.

Chimhowu, A. and P. Woodhouse (2006) ‘Customary versus Private Property Rights?

Dynamics and trajectories of vernacular land markets in Sub-Saharan
Africa’, Journal of Agrarian Change 6 (3), pp 346-371.

49
Changutah, T. (2010) ‘Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation
Preparedness in Southern Africa’, Zimbabwe Country Report, Southern
Africa: Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

Cousins et al. (1992) ‘What is a ‘smallholder’? Class-analytic perspectives on small-

scale farming and agrarian reform in South Africa’, Working paper 16, pp 1-24

de Janvry, A. (1980) ‘Social differentiation in agriculture and the ideology of

neopopulism’. In F. H. Buttel and H. Newby (eds) The Rural Sociology of the
Advanced Societies: Critical Perspectives, pp 155-168. Allanheld, Osum: Montclair.

Edelman, M. (2005) ‘Bringing the Moral Economy back into the study of the 21st
Century Transnational Peasant Movements’, Vol 107( 3) pp 334-346.

Ellis, F. (1999) ‘Rural livelihood diversity in developing countries: evidence

and policy implications’, ODI, Number 40, pp 1-11.

Fages, V. (1999) Migration and AIDS in South Africa: a public health issue. Pretoria:
UNAIDS.

FAO (2003) Special report FAO/WFP crop and food supply assessment mission to Zimbabwe,
World Food Programme, Rome.

Hanke, S. (2008) ‘Hyperinflation: Mugabe versus Milosevic’. Globe Asia.

Hobsbawn, E. (1973) ‘Peasants and politics’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 1(1), pp 3-22.

Kearney, M. (1996) Re-conceptualizing the peasantry: Anthropology

in Global Perspective. West- View: Boulder.

Litwin, C. (1992) ‘Impacts of Crop Price and Wage Policies on Farm Employment
and Output in Zimbabwe’. Gotenborg: Nationalekonomiska institutionen.

Lurie, M. (2001) ‘Migration and the spread of HIV in South Africa’, PhD dissertation,
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.

Mazvimavi et al. (2008) ‘An assessment of the Sustainable Uptake of

Conservation Farming in Zimbabwe, Global Theme on Agro-
ecosystems’, Report no.39, ICRISAT.

McLaughlin, P. (1998) ‘Rethinking the Agrarian Question: The Limits of

Essentialism and the Promise of Evolutionism’, Human Ecology Review,
5(2).

Neefjes, K.. (2000) Environments and Livelihoods: Strategies for Sustainability. An Oxfam
GB Publication.

50
O’Laughlin, B. (2004) Book reviews. Development and Change, 35(2), pp 385–403.

O’Leary, Z. (2010) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage.

Robinson, P. (2007) Macro-Economic Paper Produced for the Zimbabwe Institute. Cape Town.

Rukuni et al. (2006) Zimbabwe’s Agricultural Revolution Revisited, Harare: University of

Zimbabwe.

Shanin, T. (1976) Peasants and peasant societies. Middlesex: Penguin Books.

Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and Forestry (2004) ‘PRA tools for studying
urban agriculture and gender’. Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and
Forestry (RUAF), not peer reviewed.

Riggs, J. (1998) ‘Rural-urban interactions, agriculture and wealth: a Southeast Asian

perspective’, Progress in human geography (22) 4, pp 497-522.

Russell, J. (2008) ‘Zimbabwe: Country at Risk of Climate Change Effects’. Zimbio

Magazine, pp 1-3.

Sainath, P. (1996) Everybody loves a good drought-Stories from India’s poorest districts. India:
Penguin books.

Sen, A. and J.Dreze (1981) Poverty and Famines. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Scoones et al. (2010) Zimbabwe’s Land Reform: Myths and Realities. Harare: Weaver press.

Scott, J. (1976) The moral economy of the peasant and subsistence in the South East Asia. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Spivak, G.C. (1998) ‘Can the subaltern speak’?. In Gary Nelson and Lawrence
Grossberg (eds) Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. London: Macmillan.

van der Ploeg, J. (2010) ‘The peasantries of the twenty first century: the
commoditization debate revisited’, Journal of peasant studies, 37(1), pp 30.

Vargas-Lundius, R. and M. Villarreal (2008) International migration, remittances and rural

development. Rome: IFAD

Vincent, V. and Thomas, R.G. (1960) An agricultural survey of Southern Rhodesia:

Part I: agro-ecological survey. Salisbury: Government Printer.

Wolf, E. (1966) Peasants, Foundations of Anthropological series. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,

Inc.

51
Yaro, J. A. (2006) ‘Is de-agrarianisation real?- A study of livelihood activities in rural
northern Ghana’, The Journal of Modern African Studies, 44(1), pp 125-156.

52