Our Masvingo province A1 sites – Wondedzo and Sanangwe near Masvingo town and Clare and Lonely A near Chatsworth in Gutu – are classic dryland maize growing areas In good years, many tonnes of surplus are produced for sale or storage, and these moments provide the spur to invest and accumulate The years after land redistribution saw some excellent harvests and once people had cleared land, they profited from large outputs Large areas were planted, and granaries were bulging with maize grain The areas planted were often virgin soil as previously the land was used for cattle ranching, so the yields were boosted due to good soil fertility, even if on otherwise poor sandy soils in miombo woodland areas.During these years in our A1 sites many in our sample invested in fine homes, along with the continuing to support children in education, now often upgraded to boarding and other better schools as the quality of public education declined Cattle were purchased and herds built up in the then plentiful grazing areas This pattern however did not last There was a sequence of droughts that reduced crop yields, and the effort used to plant large outfields was increasingly seen as not worth it Later, cattle populations were hit by disease and many people ended up with few animals, insufficient to form a span for ploughing.An alternative strategy for accumulation was sought through the investments made in the early years, and this involved intensification of production, usually around horticulture Intensification has meant a contraction of ‘outfield’ area and so maize production, and this is important for those who lack energy and labour to plough large dryland areas This is a region of the country where vleis (wetlands) dot the landscape and vegetable growing with supplementary irrigation has become an important focus for many, especially for women but increasingly for men.Investment in boreholes, irrigation pumps, pipesand other infrastructure, together with vehicles for transporting crops, was a critical avenue for spending funds generated by surplus maize These horticultural enterprises were highly reliant on good markets, but entrepreneurial farmers were able to make connections with supermarkets in Masvingo and traders in the ‘train’ market in the town Those in Gutu have more recently suffered the ending of the goods train service to Masvingo and the splitting of theAFM church, which in the past used to hold huge gatherings in Rufaro just outside Chatsworth and so a ready market for vegetable growers and other vendors COVID-19 and restrictions on movement also curtailed the market expansion, but many found ways around lockdown rules as we discussed in our research on the pandemic.OurA2 sitesare very different There are some farms that are focused on arable production, a few that are specialised in horticulture, but many, particularly in the Gutu and Chatsworth areas, are livestock focused enterprises, replicating the production system that the former white commercial farms followed prior to land reform, but on much smaller areas These farms have had mixed fortunes, with some successes, but many failures at least in terms of the ‘ideal’ of an independent medium commercial farm sector While some are effectively abandoned with land being held speculatively, others are now leasing out land for rental to others, and others still are attracting in relatives to create village settlements on the farm, essentially with each homestead following a small-scale farming approach As a result, the dynamics of accumulation across our A2 sample is extremely varied, both across farms and across time, as fortunes have varied over the last decades.Across our Masvingo A1 and A2 sites, we therefore see a number of different accumulation patterns, with particular gender characteristics These overlap with those in Mvurwi discussed in the last blog but have their distinct characteristics Below we outline a number of these (which overlap or are sequenced), illustrated with cases from our qualitative biographical interviews At this stage, we cannot say for sure what proportion of each strategy existed across our sample households at different points of time This will have to await our survey later this year and the analysis of our longitudinal data across years Clearly, as we have discussed before, accumulation from below dominates, but does this get followed by decline or renewal This depends on a whole array of factors discussed below, all of which are pertinent to thinking about future rural development policies and support strategies.Accumulation from below then declineThose arriving in the A1 areas as part of ‘jambanja’ invasions set up base camps in areas that were essentially bush The former farms had very limited cultivated areas, usually near the homestead They started from nothing, but soon were accumulating as big maize producers In the self-contained A1 areas of Clare and Wondedzo Extension, this was often spectacular The villagised schemes also had important accumulators, but in these areas the levels of surplus were smaller Most people however produced more than a tonne of maize in nearly all years, and so were able to invest and accumulate.This was very much a ‘big man’ investment pathway and women often focused on their smaller plots – of groundnuts,nyimoand so on – as well as their vegetable gardens In many ways the early years replicated the old ‘hurudza’ story from many decades ago in the communal areas when there was sufficient land and people owned large herds for manure and draft power In the villagised areas, there was more pressure from others to come and settle and, through both official and informal routes, the areas of land available – especially for grazing – shrunk, particularly in the Sanangwe site where about 64 households were resettled by the District Administrator and village heads as they had settled on an ungazetted farm nearby In this respect these areas began to feel much more like the current communal areas, where field sizes are smaller, grazing areas settled in and where there is an increasing focus on different styles of intensive gardening.The attenuation of the accumulation from below trajectory happened in different ways In the self-contained areas, there was less pressure on land, but old age and death of usually male land holders resulted in a contraction of production possibilities In the villagised areas, demographic changes were also significant, but fewer animals (due to less grazing, drought and disease) had a big impact too As the cases show, in some instances homes were abandoned as no one was there to take over (often due to family disputes and challenges with succession) or taken over by a widow without the capacities to manage the farm to full, and with only some selective support from now adult children.Case 1: RS, Clare, A1 self-containedRS was born in 1963 at Rasa near Bhasera in Gutu communal area He acquired land in 2000 He was one of the leaders of the invasion He was allocated a plot of 70 hectares in size, and quickly cleared 9 ha for farming He invested substantially in the new area He built a good home, with four houses In 2008, he owned 14 cattle and 51 goats, as well as other agricultural equipment such as ploughs and scotch-carts He was also a good networker, able to make connections which have benefited his livelihood options During the early years of resettlement, he held several positions at local level, including secretary for the war veteran group during the land invasions (which he helped coordinate across several farms), Base Commander of Clare farm, and later elected Political Commissar for Ward 32 then ZANU-PF Party Chairman He was also elected Secretary for Lands and Resettlement in the District Coordinating Committee These connections allowed him to gain access to government schemes, most notably through Operation Maguta, and he received seed and fertiliser on loan However, in 2008, a series of events led to a decline He and one of his wives had fallen acutely ill; they were treated for tuberculosis and diagnosed as HIV positive RS and his wife’s ill health derailed the household’s production and sapped the household’s resources In 2009, RS tried to burn down the house where his now estranged second wife lived She escaped and fled, while he was later arrested and charged However, before the case could be heard, he took his own life in May 2009 Following his death and that of his first wife, the estranged wife left for South Africa, leaving the plot unoccupied In 2012, after ‘nyaradzo’ (a ceremony held following the death of a person), RS’s brothers asked RS’s oldest son (MS) to take over the farm as the first-born son RS’s brothers also asked MS’s mother – RS’s first wife whom he had divorced a long time ago – to return at the farm This created tension with the family, and one of the half-siblings accused MS of grabbing all the father’s assets This prompted MS and his mother to abandon the farm Although the half-brothers have “reconciled”, nothing is happening at the farm to this day.Case 2: JH, Clare, AJH is 72 years old She and her husband acquired a self-contained plot in Clare in the year 2000 They were both full-time farmers in the nearby Serima communal areas At settlement, they had 8 head of cattle and a plough Between 2001 and 2002, the household cleared 9ha of crop field They grew a variety of crops, including maize, rapoko, sweet potatoes, roundnuts and groundnuts for both consumption and sale From 2003 to 2009, the household managed to buy a scotch-cart, plough and cultivator, fencing the whole farm and creating fenced paddocks, as well as educating their last-born son up to Form 6 with maize proceeds They also slowly managed to build up their herd to 17 at the time They were good farmers with a good record of selling maize to GMB, which made it possible for to gain access to inputs from Operation Maguta However, a series of events has led to a decline These include the death of JH’s husband in 2010, old age, January disease, which led to the death of cattle (resulting in lack of draft power and adequate manure) and children who were once a source of cheap labour have come of age and left for urban jobs All these factors have led to the reduction of area cultivated from 9ha to 2ha She explained: “A lot of things have changed When my husband was still alive, we used to harvest a lot of maize In Ward 1, we were always number 1 every season when it comes to crop farming It’s all gone now All things come to an end Who can do what my husband was doing now My husband would never leave the crop fields Every season we would hold a ‘humwe’ I would brew traditional beer and my husband would invite his friends from Chiriga for humwe Now I can’t do all this when ‘baba vemusha’ (father of homestead) is no longer there.”Case 3: NV, Lonely, A1 villagised75-year NV and her now late husband obtained land in 2000 Her husband worked as a general hand at a Greek-owned store in Chatsworth from 1978 until his retirement in 1998 and took up farming on a full time basis in the communal areas In the early 2000s, NV’s husband joined jambanja and was one of the leaders of invaders in the area The household later acquired an A1 plot in Lonely.On acquiring land, NV and her husband steadily invested in their land with proceeds from farming They came with 18 cattle, a plough and cultivator Thanks to good grazing, the household steadily built up its herd At one time, the herd increased up to 44 They even had two spans of four oxen each Using proceeds from farming, they also invested in two irrigation pumps that they moved between their new land and old communal area home With adequate draft power and manure, they would cultivate their 4ha crop field and 2.5ha ‘doro’ field situated in the vlei In 2008, the household was regarded as relatively successful But a series of unfortunate events led to a drastic decline In 2017, NV’s husband passed away following a long illness In 2020, the household had 44 head of cattle During the January Disease outbreak, NV lost most of her cattle and she is now left with 6 cattle In 2020, her second-born son (born 1972) who was employed as a headmaster at a nearby school committed suicide Meanwhile, her last born son’s economic fortunes has ebbed drastically over time He had been running a business in Harare, supplying stationery to over 10 schools there However, starting from 2020, the business began to collapse In 2022, her first born son (born 1970) who was also a headmaster at a secondary school died after a short illness All these events hit NV’s family very hard She lost her two sons, while her youngest son’s business collapsed – all of whom provided remittances.Accumulation, then decline then improvementThere are others who have followed a similar trajectory to that described above, but with a twist – they have managed to negotiate a successful succession to a next generation A big question for many farmers in our sample – both A1 and A2 is whether kids who they have educated often to very high levels will come back and take over the farm Many such sons and daughters are living way, often abroad, and doing reasonably well in jobs What is the incentive to return Rural homes, especially in our Masvingo sample, are much better equipped than those in the communal areas of old There are multiple bedrooms, solar power and lighting, even internet connections Parents feel it’s an enticement for their children that things are‘like town’.Road connections are better, and cars are plentiful, so it’s not a matter of taking a rural bus and walking for miles But there are still relatively few households that have managed the generational transition successfully In many homes there are beginnings: projects invested in by absent children, often in the diaspora, but not really taking on the whole farm operation The cases below show some examples where children are present and investing even if not full-time resident or are joining parents on subdivided farms and investing in multiple projects Maybe it is too early for others to do this, but very often if both parents have died and the children are not present the most likely scenario is farm abandonment rather than regeneration, so many argue this transfer must happen while both generations are present.Case 4: RM, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagisedRM, a 60-year-old widow, obtained a 4ha A1 plot in the year 2000 Initially, her household had initially settled illegally in a farm in Nemamwa after realising the difficulties of town life, but were removed by the state Her now late husband worked as a mechanic in Bulawayo and later Masvingo In 2003, only three years after settlement, RM’s husband passed away, leaving her with three young children (one boy and two girls) Following the death of her husband, she struggled to gain a foothold in farming During this period, she also fell seriously ill due HIV/AIDS related illnesses She struggled to produce enough surplus to accumulate and educate her children When her oldest son passed his Form 4, a pastor from her AFM church provided financial support that enabled her son to do ‘A’ level Her son later enrolled for a diploma in accounting at Masvingo Polytechnic College Upon completion in 2010, he then found a job at ZIMRA With a good job, the son was then able to invest substantially on the farm with his wages, starting with replacing pole and mud houses with a six-roomed house installed with solar system and flush toilets In 2020, he drilled a borehole and installed a submersible solar pump, jojo tank and irrigation The son is also engaging in horticulture, which RM manages while her son is still at work The son also runs a butchery business in town While things are looking up for RM’s household, she constantly worries about succession She complained that her son and his wife were not bringing their children to the farm frequently and long enough to allow her to pass the knowledge of farming to her grandchildren as she once did to her own children She emphasised the need to encourage children at young age to learn agricultural skills.Case 5: AM, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedAM is now in her early 80s She acquired a plot in Wondedzo extension on her own account in the early 2000s, although her husband helped her to choose a strategic plot with access to water At that time, her husband was working as a bus inspector in Masvingo On acquiring the land, the household cleared a 5ha arable field, moved their large herd to the plot and built a good home Her husband later passed away in 2006, but the household maintained its standing She grew maize, rapoko and groundnuts She regularly sold maize to GMB In 2021, in consultations with her children, she took the decision to return to her communal areas home in nearby Masvingise area due to old age As a family, they then decided to exchange the plot with her sister’s son who had a smaller A1 villagised plot in Stanmore B irrigation plot They approached the District Administrator (DA) so that he could facilitate the process However, the DA was against the idea As she said, “the DA first asked if we were related to the person who we wanted to exchange the land with I told him that he was my sister’s son And, he said, in that case, “this was not right” He asked why I was giving away my own children’s ‘nhaka’ (inheritance) to someone else’s son “Your sister’s son does not share the same blood with your children Instead, he advised us to go back home and think carefully again We returned to the DA several times, but remained the same Seeing that the DA was not going to approve our request, my children (including married daughters) then sat down among themselves and decided that my youngest son (T) should take over the plot as he had not inherited anything from the parents The older son (TB) had inherited the old homestead in communal areas and house in Masvingo town following the death of their father So, it was only fair that the young son also inherits the plot Once they had agreed, the children then secretly built a new homestead within the old stand in the communal areas and comfortably furnished it for their mother “This made me very happy that my children could come up with such a plan If the DA had approved our request, we would have got rid of the plot I am grateful to this day.” Today, her son who is also a successful businessman in Gweru is now the new owner of the plot and is now registered in his name He owns nearly 200 cattle, and is even renting additional grazing land from other farmers It is therefore not surprising that the household retains its success thanks to careful succession planning.Case 6: EC, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedEC and her husband acquired a plot in Wondedzo Extension in 2000 Her husband worked as a mechanic for many years before he retired in 2000 and became a pastor of a Pentecostal church The household invested in housing infrastructure and clearing of 10ha of crop fields At settlement, they had a herd of 8 cattle, which later increased to 35 through natural growth They regularly harvested a lot of maize (up to 30 tonnes in good seasons) and sold to GMB They also engaged in horticulture near Mutirikwi river, and sold their products (leafy vegetables, onions and tomatoes) at KuTrain market They managed to set up a private school (linked to the church) and to educate their children (some up to tertiary level) – all through farming One of her daughters works as a school teacher at the family’s private school, another daughter as a secretary at the same school and the other is self-employed as a cross-border trader At one point, the household had 8 oxen (making two spans of 4 oxen), and hired as many as four permanent workers From 2014 through to 2023, the household also constructed a very large modern house, which is comfortably furnished, using income from cattle and maize sales But in 2021, EC’s husband passed away after a short illness Despite his death, the household has fared well, largely because the daughters are sending remittances back home (often from the school), which is important for paying workers and buying inputs Both of her two sons are at home, farming with her, although the younger son suffers from mental illness Currently, the household owns 16 head of cattle Last season, the household was selected by the local extension officer and received inputs for wheat production under Command Agriculture.Case 7: AS, Wondedzo ExtensionAS is 82 years old He belongs to the Johanne Masowe church He has five wives and over 30 children AS acquired a 35ha plot in 2000 with the help of his son-in-law who was a war veteran and leader of invasions during the time His 9 sons and three wives have all established their own homesteads within the plot All his sons are self-employed – buying and selling goods in town, while engaging in small ‘projects’ at the farm, especially intensive horticulture Each son has access to between one and two hectares of land One of his sons managed to drill a borehole with income from ‘kungwavha-ngwavha’ In 2020, AS’s former employer drilled a borehole for AS, fenced off 1ha with security fence, and installed a jojo tank and irrigation pipes Overall, the farm has become a village operation, with sons and wives pursuing small agricultural ‘projects’ at home, alongside petty trading in nearby Masvingo town.Accumulation from below through expansion of a family labour force focusing on intensive horticultureFamilies following theApostolic church (Johanne Masowe)really perfected the intensive horticulture strategy Starting off very poor and relying on intermittent maize harvests, they soon negotiated access to land near streams and rivers and started deploying family labour (many wives and children) in horticulture, which increasingly became a sophisticated and intensive operation This expanded through investment in dryland areas throughdrilling boreholes and upgrading pumps Today this network of families deploying hundreds of people through family labour is a force to be reckoned with in the regional horticultural market having diversified away from the classic formula of tomatoes and cabbages to a whole array of products.Case 8: EM, Wondedzo, A1 self-containedEM is 45 years old His parents acquired land in the early 2000s But in 2004, his father passed away As the first-born son, EM took over the plot, although his siblings also remained on the plot and established their own homesteads within the plot Today, the plot has become a ‘village within the plot’ as EM and his siblings have established their homesteads and fields There is a total of six homesteads within the farm belonging to the sons, of which most are engaging in horticulture In 2006, EM started irrigating a small area with buckets from a small dam He grew vegetables, which he sold locally and in Masvingo From the proceeds, he was able to purchase a foot water pump In 2010, he then purchased a 5 HP pump for US$220 and irrigation pipes in the following year As a member of the Mapostori sect, he has 31 wives and many children who are all a source of cheap labour He has since invested in a 30 HP pump and has drilled a borehole Today, EM operates one of the largest horticulture enterprises in Wondedzo Extension.Accumulation from outsideMany of those who have been accumulating from below have links to town and off-farm businesses, but this is not such a driving force for investment in the A1 schemes, unlike in the A2 farms that are almost exclusively financed through investment from outside Many of the A2 farms in our Masvingo study areas are cattle ranches, but operating on a far smaller scale than the huge farms that were previously managed by a few white farming families in this area Cattle ranching on a small area is challenging and requires external funding to support supplementary feed, the leasing of grazing land, veterinary expenses and so on Many are not really going concerns and few have grown significantly over the nearly 25 years since establishment.However, there is a new phase of investment in some of our A1 and A2 sites with urban based professionals, some with diaspora connections or recently having retired, coming to invest through leasing or even purchasing land (see earlier blogs on ‘new entrants’) In A1 areas this is happening mostly in self-contained sites where a whole ‘farm’ can be acquired and invested in These areas are like small A2 farms and have a quite different feel to the villagised sites.Case 9: HH, Clare, A1 self-containedHH, a 57-year-old man, worked as a secondary school teacher in Botswana since 2008 When land reform begun in the year 2000, he had no interest in gaining access to land He saw land reform as a political gimmick and had no interest in farming at the time, despite having a solid farming background He explained, “During land reform, I was one of those people who were spending most of their time at the bar drinking alcohol I was not interested You see, interest in farming has something to do with age.” It was “only later in life” that he realised that he needed land “I asked myself that, “what will I do when I retire without land?”, he says This prompted him to look for land, and he managed to obtain a self-contained plot “by chance” The plot belonged to one of the war veterans who was the leader of farm invasions in the early 2000s This war veteran had managed to acquire several plots and registered them in relatives’ names This particular plot was registered in the war veteran’s son’s name When the war veteran passed away, the son sold the plot to HH for USD7000 in 2014 There was no structure and no fence on the farm – “it was just ground”, he said Since acquiring the farm, HH has invested substantially on the farm, including clearing 2ha of arable land, buying livestock, fencing the whole farm, drilling a borehole, installing a submersible pump for USD3000 and building a comfortable rural homestead Funds came mostly from his savings from his job as a teacher Today, he owns a herd of 20 cattle and 11 goats He primarily grows sugar beans and sells at Serima High School where his wife works as an administrator A few years ago, he ventured into horticulture, but the ‘project’ floundered due to difficulties in running a farm while away As he declared, “Farm management by cellphone is very difficult If you are not there, it’s very hard for the project to be a success.”Case 10: CZ, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagised59-year-old CZ is a retired nurse and his wife works as a school teacher at Wondedzo secondary school The household purchased an A1 plot in 2010 from a land beneficiary (MM) whose father had a self-contained plot Following the death of his father, MMinherited his father’s self-contained plot Hence, he decided to sell his A1 plot to CZ, who at the time was living at the local clinic CZ gave the seller two head of cattle as payment There was only one hut on the plot, although the crop field was cleared Since purchasing the plot, CZ has gradually made significant investments on the farm with savings from his wages alongside bank loans In 2011, the household constructed a three-roomed brick and iron roof house and renovated a round brick and thatch kitchen they found there In 2016, they built another 4-roomed house with a combination of income from maize sales, horticulture, loans and wages In 2011, they also managed to purchase cattle with proceeds from horticulture Their herd later increased to 17 However, all but 4 died due to January disease In 2017, the household bought a grinding mill with a loan, and bought another one in 2020 As civil servants, they had access to relatively low-interest loans from reputable banks such as Agri-Bank In 2018, CZ and his wife took a bank loan and used it to drill a borehole, install solar panels and three submersible pumps costing around USD2800 His children also regularly provide remittances.Accumulation from aboveAs in all our sites there are examples of accumulation from above, particularly in the early period when land was claimed This occurred in the A1 areas when those with connections (often through their war veteran status) were able to claim ‘self-contained’ plots rather than being allocated to villagised areas The same individuals often had close associations with the District Land Committees and were able to influence subsequent land allocations in favour of relatives and others However the amount of subsequent patronage resources that flowed to Masvingo areas has been minimal, and few benefited from the notoriousRBZ Farm Mechanisation Schemein the 2000s andCommand Agriculturein the 2010s There were some A2 farmers in our sample who again were politically well connected but not many, and these connections often did not result in the flow of resources as these were diverted elsewhere Such individuals would often complain to us that despite their status they were not receiving anything and that they were just like everyone else.Decumulation and declineThere are different patterns of decline across our Masvingo sites As noted earlier there is a demographically linked decline in A1 areas as older parents, once energetic surplus maize farmers, are no longer able to achieve such production levels Partly this is because of a changing climate (rice for example, once a staple in the area, has virtually disappeared), but mostly declines are because of ill health, death and lack of family labour or funding to support hiring This decline, as already discussed is in part offset in cases where there is successful generation transition and also through leasing out land to new entrants.Decline in the A2 areas is due to similar factors, but also because A2 farming overall has suffered throughlack of finance and support.A2 farming is a tough business proposition in the Masvingo area and few have really made it without significant subsidies from outside Some have had patronage windfalls, but these have had little overall effect; others are reliant on support from external jobs (paying in US dollars, like in the NGO sector, UN jobs, lawyers etc.) Those with external jobs to drive investment are surviving but probably not on very economic terms as cash is quickly absorbed in loss making concerns The only period when some A2 farms in Masvingo were doing reasonably well was in theGNU periodwhen some semblance of economic stability prevailed for a few years and investment was possible Before and since, business has been extremely difficult in the absence of sustainable farm finance from banks.As a result, a number of A2 farms have been slowly abandoned, leaving few workers or relatives but with little economic activity There are as a result large areas of land being made available for leasing and even purchase This new injection of funds and investment is however slower and less dramatic than in the Mvurwi area where returns are higher and more assured.In some cases, some relatively large A2 farms have been subject to downsizing and subdivisions Most were once allocated to political elites who have since passed away and have been inherited by their widows or children With loss of political clout, their farms have been subject to downsizing amid allegations of ‘under-utilisation’ In our Masvingo-Gutu A2 sample, two farms that were once allocated to two political elites have been downsized following their death For example, SM, a former minister was allocated 1200 ha of land in the early 2000s He passed away in 2016 In 2021, the Lands Office decided to downsize the farm and carved out 12 additional plots that were then allocated to civil servants and a few politically-connected individuals His surviving widow was left with 100ha of land In another A2 farm, a total of 40 plots were created following the death of the original land beneficiary whose father was a political heavyweight in the rural party, with much influence locally.What of the future?As in all our sites, sustaining the trajectory of accumulation from below seen in the early years of land reform has been challenging Some have been successful by changing strategy (from maize to irrigated horticulture) or via deploying considerable labour (as in Apostolic follower families), but others have seen declines in accumulation over time, particularly as the original household heads age or die The question of succession and generational transfer is at the centre of the challenge for the future, and we see some hopeful examples where projects or new commercial investments are led by adult children with resources or by outsider coming as new entrants to invest on lease arrangements.However, this is by no means a standard story and we see other plots abandoned or suffering from very low production levels This has been particularly the case in the A2 farms where sustaining a commercial farm operation without considerableexternal finance(not available through commercial banks) is nigh on impossible Much will depend on the wider investment environment and the stability of the economy – we saw the potentials that relative stability brought in theGNU period– and the degree to which farm enterprises in a not especially high potential area – perhaps declining due to climate change and the drying up of vleis/wetlands – are attractive to both new investors and the next generation.This blog, the third in a series on the dynamics of accumulation, has been written by Ian Scoones and Tapiwa Chatikobo, with inputs from Felix Murimbarimba (who facilitated the workshops), Godfrey Mahofa, Jacob Mahenehene, Sydney Jones (Matobo), Moses Mutoko (Masvingo), Makiwa Manaka (Gutu), Vincent Sarayi/Peter Tsungu (Mvurwi) amongst many others in each of our sites This blog first appeared onZimbabwelandPost published in:FeaturedRelatedWhen Did We as a Society Sink So Low?British Bishop Runs 268 Miles With Dog, Raises £35,000 To Build School In MatabelelandLeave a ReplyCancel reply Our Masvingo province A1 sites – Wondedzo and Sanangwe near Masvingo town and Clare and Lonely A near Chatsworth in Gutu – are classic dryland maize growing areas In good years, many tonnes of surplus are produced for sale or storage, and these moments provide the spur to invest and accumulate The years after land redistribution saw some excellent harvests and once people had cleared land, they profited from large outputs Large areas were planted, and granaries were bulging with maize grain The areas planted were often virgin soil as previously the land was used for cattle ranching, so the yields were boosted due to good soil fertility, even if on otherwise poor sandy soils in miombo woodland areas.During these years in our A1 sites many in our sample invested in fine homes, along with the continuing to support children in education, now often upgraded to boarding and other better schools as the quality of public education declined Cattle were purchased and herds built up in the then plentiful grazing areas This pattern however did not last There was a sequence of droughts that reduced crop yields, and the effort used to plant large outfields was increasingly seen as not worth it Later, cattle populations were hit by disease and many people ended up with few animals, insufficient to form a span for ploughing.An alternative strategy for accumulation was sought through the investments made in the early years, and this involved intensification of production, usually around horticulture Intensification has meant a contraction of ‘outfield’ area and so maize production, and this is important for those who lack energy and labour to plough large dryland areas This is a region of the country where vleis (wetlands) dot the landscape and vegetable growing with supplementary irrigation has become an important focus for many, especially for women but increasingly for men.Investment in boreholes, irrigation pumps, pipesand other infrastructure, together with vehicles for transporting crops, was a critical avenue for spending funds generated by surplus maize These horticultural enterprises were highly reliant on good markets, but entrepreneurial farmers were able to make connections with supermarkets in Masvingo and traders in the ‘train’ market in the town Those in Gutu have more recently suffered the ending of the goods train service to Masvingo and the splitting of theAFM church, which in the past used to hold huge gatherings in Rufaro just outside Chatsworth and so a ready market for vegetable growers and other vendors COVID-19 and restrictions on movement also curtailed the market expansion, but many found ways around lockdown rules as we discussed in our research on the pandemic.OurA2 sitesare very different There are some farms that are focused on arable production, a few that are specialised in horticulture, but many, particularly in the Gutu and Chatsworth areas, are livestock focused enterprises, replicating the production system that the former white commercial farms followed prior to land reform, but on much smaller areas These farms have had mixed fortunes, with some successes, but many failures at least in terms of the ‘ideal’ of an independent medium commercial farm sector While some are effectively abandoned with land being held speculatively, others are now leasing out land for rental to others, and others still are attracting in relatives to create village settlements on the farm, essentially with each homestead following a small-scale farming approach As a result, the dynamics of accumulation across our A2 sample is extremely varied, both across farms and across time, as fortunes have varied over the last decades.Across our Masvingo A1 and A2 sites, we therefore see a number of different accumulation patterns, with particular gender characteristics These overlap with those in Mvurwi discussed in the last blog but have their distinct characteristics Below we outline a number of these (which overlap or are sequenced), illustrated with cases from our qualitative biographical interviews At this stage, we cannot say for sure what proportion of each strategy existed across our sample households at different points of time This will have to await our survey later this year and the analysis of our longitudinal data across years Clearly, as we have discussed before, accumulation from below dominates, but does this get followed by decline or renewal This depends on a whole array of factors discussed below, all of which are pertinent to thinking about future rural development policies and support strategies.Accumulation from below then declineThose arriving in the A1 areas as part of ‘jambanja’ invasions set up base camps in areas that were essentially bush The former farms had very limited cultivated areas, usually near the homestead They started from nothing, but soon were accumulating as big maize producers In the self-contained A1 areas of Clare and Wondedzo Extension, this was often spectacular The villagised schemes also had important accumulators, but in these areas the levels of surplus were smaller Most people however produced more than a tonne of maize in nearly all years, and so were able to invest and accumulate.This was very much a ‘big man’ investment pathway and women often focused on their smaller plots – of groundnuts,nyimoand so on – as well as their vegetable gardens In many ways the early years replicated the old ‘hurudza’ story from many decades ago in the communal areas when there was sufficient land and people owned large herds for manure and draft power In the villagised areas, there was more pressure from others to come and settle and, through both official and informal routes, the areas of land available – especially for grazing – shrunk, particularly in the Sanangwe site where about 64 households were resettled by the District Administrator and village heads as they had settled on an ungazetted farm nearby In this respect these areas began to feel much more like the current communal areas, where field sizes are smaller, grazing areas settled in and where there is an increasing focus on different styles of intensive gardening.The attenuation of the accumulation from below trajectory happened in different ways In the self-contained areas, there was less pressure on land, but old age and death of usually male land holders resulted in a contraction of production possibilities In the villagised areas, demographic changes were also significant, but fewer animals (due to less grazing, drought and disease) had a big impact too As the cases show, in some instances homes were abandoned as no one was there to take over (often due to family disputes and challenges with succession) or taken over by a widow without the capacities to manage the farm to full, and with only some selective support from now adult children.Case 1: RS, Clare, A1 self-containedRS was born in 1963 at Rasa near Bhasera in Gutu communal area He acquired land in 2000 He was one of the leaders of the invasion He was allocated a plot of 70 hectares in size, and quickly cleared 9 ha for farming He invested substantially in the new area He built a good home, with four houses In 2008, he owned 14 cattle and 51 goats, as well as other agricultural equipment such as ploughs and scotch-carts He was also a good networker, able to make connections which have benefited his livelihood options During the early years of resettlement, he held several positions at local level, including secretary for the war veteran group during the land invasions (which he helped coordinate across several farms), Base Commander of Clare farm, and later elected Political Commissar for Ward 32 then ZANU-PF Party Chairman He was also elected Secretary for Lands and Resettlement in the District Coordinating Committee These connections allowed him to gain access to government schemes, most notably through Operation Maguta, and he received seed and fertiliser on loan However, in 2008, a series of events led to a decline He and one of his wives had fallen acutely ill; they were treated for tuberculosis and diagnosed as HIV positive RS and his wife’s ill health derailed the household’s production and sapped the household’s resources In 2009, RS tried to burn down the house where his now estranged second wife lived She escaped and fled, while he was later arrested and charged However, before the case could be heard, he took his own life in May 2009 Following his death and that of his first wife, the estranged wife left for South Africa, leaving the plot unoccupied In 2012, after ‘nyaradzo’ (a ceremony held following the death of a person), RS’s brothers asked RS’s oldest son (MS) to take over the farm as the first-born son RS’s brothers also asked MS’s mother – RS’s first wife whom he had divorced a long time ago – to return at the farm This created tension with the family, and one of the half-siblings accused MS of grabbing all the father’s assets This prompted MS and his mother to abandon the farm Although the half-brothers have “reconciled”, nothing is happening at the farm to this day.Case 2: JH, Clare, AJH is 72 years old She and her husband acquired a self-contained plot in Clare in the year 2000 They were both full-time farmers in the nearby Serima communal areas At settlement, they had 8 head of cattle and a plough Between 2001 and 2002, the household cleared 9ha of crop field They grew a variety of crops, including maize, rapoko, sweet potatoes, roundnuts and groundnuts for both consumption and sale From 2003 to 2009, the household managed to buy a scotch-cart, plough and cultivator, fencing the whole farm and creating fenced paddocks, as well as educating their last-born son up to Form 6 with maize proceeds They also slowly managed to build up their herd to 17 at the time They were good farmers with a good record of selling maize to GMB, which made it possible for to gain access to inputs from Operation Maguta However, a series of events has led to a decline These include the death of JH’s husband in 2010, old age, January disease, which led to the death of cattle (resulting in lack of draft power and adequate manure) and children who were once a source of cheap labour have come of age and left for urban jobs All these factors have led to the reduction of area cultivated from 9ha to 2ha She explained: “A lot of things have changed When my husband was still alive, we used to harvest a lot of maize In Ward 1, we were always number 1 every season when it comes to crop farming It’s all gone now All things come to an end Who can do what my husband was doing now My husband would never leave the crop fields Every season we would hold a ‘humwe’ I would brew traditional beer and my husband would invite his friends from Chiriga for humwe Now I can’t do all this when ‘baba vemusha’ (father of homestead) is no longer there.”Case 3: NV, Lonely, A1 villagised75-year NV and her now late husband obtained land in 2000 Her husband worked as a general hand at a Greek-owned store in Chatsworth from 1978 until his retirement in 1998 and took up farming on a full time basis in the communal areas In the early 2000s, NV’s husband joined jambanja and was one of the leaders of invaders in the area The household later acquired an A1 plot in Lonely.On acquiring land, NV and her husband steadily invested in their land with proceeds from farming They came with 18 cattle, a plough and cultivator Thanks to good grazing, the household steadily built up its herd At one time, the herd increased up to 44 They even had two spans of four oxen each Using proceeds from farming, they also invested in two irrigation pumps that they moved between their new land and old communal area home With adequate draft power and manure, they would cultivate their 4ha crop field and 2.5ha ‘doro’ field situated in the vlei In 2008, the household was regarded as relatively successful But a series of unfortunate events led to a drastic decline In 2017, NV’s husband passed away following a long illness In 2020, the household had 44 head of cattle During the January Disease outbreak, NV lost most of her cattle and she is now left with 6 cattle In 2020, her second-born son (born 1972) who was employed as a headmaster at a nearby school committed suicide Meanwhile, her last born son’s economic fortunes has ebbed drastically over time He had been running a business in Harare, supplying stationery to over 10 schools there However, starting from 2020, the business began to collapse In 2022, her first born son (born 1970) who was also a headmaster at a secondary school died after a short illness All these events hit NV’s family very hard She lost her two sons, while her youngest son’s business collapsed – all of whom provided remittances.Accumulation, then decline then improvementThere are others who have followed a similar trajectory to that described above, but with a twist – they have managed to negotiate a successful succession to a next generation A big question for many farmers in our sample – both A1 and A2 is whether kids who they have educated often to very high levels will come back and take over the farm Many such sons and daughters are living way, often abroad, and doing reasonably well in jobs What is the incentive to return Rural homes, especially in our Masvingo sample, are much better equipped than those in the communal areas of old There are multiple bedrooms, solar power and lighting, even internet connections Parents feel it’s an enticement for their children that things are‘like town’.Road connections are better, and cars are plentiful, so it’s not a matter of taking a rural bus and walking for miles But there are still relatively few households that have managed the generational transition successfully In many homes there are beginnings: projects invested in by absent children, often in the diaspora, but not really taking on the whole farm operation The cases below show some examples where children are present and investing even if not full-time resident or are joining parents on subdivided farms and investing in multiple projects Maybe it is too early for others to do this, but very often if both parents have died and the children are not present the most likely scenario is farm abandonment rather than regeneration, so many argue this transfer must happen while both generations are present.Case 4: RM, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagisedRM, a 60-year-old widow, obtained a 4ha A1 plot in the year 2000 Initially, her household had initially settled illegally in a farm in Nemamwa after realising the difficulties of town life, but were removed by the state Her now late husband worked as a mechanic in Bulawayo and later Masvingo In 2003, only three years after settlement, RM’s husband passed away, leaving her with three young children (one boy and two girls) Following the death of her husband, she struggled to gain a foothold in farming During this period, she also fell seriously ill due HIV/AIDS related illnesses She struggled to produce enough surplus to accumulate and educate her children When her oldest son passed his Form 4, a pastor from her AFM church provided financial support that enabled her son to do ‘A’ level Her son later enrolled for a diploma in accounting at Masvingo Polytechnic College Upon completion in 2010, he then found a job at ZIMRA With a good job, the son was then able to invest substantially on the farm with his wages, starting with replacing pole and mud houses with a six-roomed house installed with solar system and flush toilets In 2020, he drilled a borehole and installed a submersible solar pump, jojo tank and irrigation The son is also engaging in horticulture, which RM manages while her son is still at work The son also runs a butchery business in town While things are looking up for RM’s household, she constantly worries about succession She complained that her son and his wife were not bringing their children to the farm frequently and long enough to allow her to pass the knowledge of farming to her grandchildren as she once did to her own children She emphasised the need to encourage children at young age to learn agricultural skills.Case 5: AM, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedAM is now in her early 80s She acquired a plot in Wondedzo extension on her own account in the early 2000s, although her husband helped her to choose a strategic plot with access to water At that time, her husband was working as a bus inspector in Masvingo On acquiring the land, the household cleared a 5ha arable field, moved their large herd to the plot and built a good home Her husband later passed away in 2006, but the household maintained its standing She grew maize, rapoko and groundnuts She regularly sold maize to GMB In 2021, in consultations with her children, she took the decision to return to her communal areas home in nearby Masvingise area due to old age As a family, they then decided to exchange the plot with her sister’s son who had a smaller A1 villagised plot in Stanmore B irrigation plot They approached the District Administrator (DA) so that he could facilitate the process However, the DA was against the idea As she said, “the DA first asked if we were related to the person who we wanted to exchange the land with I told him that he was my sister’s son And, he said, in that case, “this was not right” He asked why I was giving away my own children’s ‘nhaka’ (inheritance) to someone else’s son “Your sister’s son does not share the same blood with your children Instead, he advised us to go back home and think carefully again We returned to the DA several times, but remained the same Seeing that the DA was not going to approve our request, my children (including married daughters) then sat down among themselves and decided that my youngest son (T) should take over the plot as he had not inherited anything from the parents The older son (TB) had inherited the old homestead in communal areas and house in Masvingo town following the death of their father So, it was only fair that the young son also inherits the plot Once they had agreed, the children then secretly built a new homestead within the old stand in the communal areas and comfortably furnished it for their mother “This made me very happy that my children could come up with such a plan If the DA had approved our request, we would have got rid of the plot I am grateful to this day.” Today, her son who is also a successful businessman in Gweru is now the new owner of the plot and is now registered in his name He owns nearly 200 cattle, and is even renting additional grazing land from other farmers It is therefore not surprising that the household retains its success thanks to careful succession planning.Case 6: EC, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedEC and her husband acquired a plot in Wondedzo Extension in 2000 Her husband worked as a mechanic for many years before he retired in 2000 and became a pastor of a Pentecostal church The household invested in housing infrastructure and clearing of 10ha of crop fields At settlement, they had a herd of 8 cattle, which later increased to 35 through natural growth They regularly harvested a lot of maize (up to 30 tonnes in good seasons) and sold to GMB They also engaged in horticulture near Mutirikwi river, and sold their products (leafy vegetables, onions and tomatoes) at KuTrain market They managed to set up a private school (linked to the church) and to educate their children (some up to tertiary level) – all through farming One of her daughters works as a school teacher at the family’s private school, another daughter as a secretary at the same school and the other is self-employed as a cross-border trader At one point, the household had 8 oxen (making two spans of 4 oxen), and hired as many as four permanent workers From 2014 through to 2023, the household also constructed a very large modern house, which is comfortably furnished, using income from cattle and maize sales But in 2021, EC’s husband passed away after a short illness Despite his death, the household has fared well, largely because the daughters are sending remittances back home (often from the school), which is important for paying workers and buying inputs Both of her two sons are at home, farming with her, although the younger son suffers from mental illness Currently, the household owns 16 head of cattle Last season, the household was selected by the local extension officer and received inputs for wheat production under Command Agriculture.Case 7: AS, Wondedzo ExtensionAS is 82 years old He belongs to the Johanne Masowe church He has five wives and over 30 children AS acquired a 35ha plot in 2000 with the help of his son-in-law who was a war veteran and leader of invasions during the time His 9 sons and three wives have all established their own homesteads within the plot All his sons are self-employed – buying and selling goods in town, while engaging in small ‘projects’ at the farm, especially intensive horticulture Each son has access to between one and two hectares of land One of his sons managed to drill a borehole with income from ‘kungwavha-ngwavha’ In 2020, AS’s former employer drilled a borehole for AS, fenced off 1ha with security fence, and installed a jojo tank and irrigation pipes Overall, the farm has become a village operation, with sons and wives pursuing small agricultural ‘projects’ at home, alongside petty trading in nearby Masvingo town.Accumulation from below through expansion of a family labour force focusing on intensive horticultureFamilies following theApostolic church (Johanne Masowe)really perfected the intensive horticulture strategy Starting off very poor and relying on intermittent maize harvests, they soon negotiated access to land near streams and rivers and started deploying family labour (many wives and children) in horticulture, which increasingly became a sophisticated and intensive operation This expanded through investment in dryland areas throughdrilling boreholes and upgrading pumps Today this network of families deploying hundreds of people through family labour is a force to be reckoned with in the regional horticultural market having diversified away from the classic formula of tomatoes and cabbages to a whole array of products.Case 8: EM, Wondedzo, A1 self-containedEM is 45 years old His parents acquired land in the early 2000s But in 2004, his father passed away As the first-born son, EM took over the plot, although his siblings also remained on the plot and established their own homesteads within the plot Today, the plot has become a ‘village within the plot’ as EM and his siblings have established their homesteads and fields There is a total of six homesteads within the farm belonging to the sons, of which most are engaging in horticulture In 2006, EM started irrigating a small area with buckets from a small dam He grew vegetables, which he sold locally and in Masvingo From the proceeds, he was able to purchase a foot water pump In 2010, he then purchased a 5 HP pump for US$220 and irrigation pipes in the following year As a member of the Mapostori sect, he has 31 wives and many children who are all a source of cheap labour He has since invested in a 30 HP pump and has drilled a borehole Today, EM operates one of the largest horticulture enterprises in Wondedzo Extension.Accumulation from outsideMany of those who have been accumulating from below have links to town and off-farm businesses, but this is not such a driving force for investment in the A1 schemes, unlike in the A2 farms that are almost exclusively financed through investment from outside Many of the A2 farms in our Masvingo study areas are cattle ranches, but operating on a far smaller scale than the huge farms that were previously managed by a few white farming families in this area Cattle ranching on a small area is challenging and requires external funding to support supplementary feed, the leasing of grazing land, veterinary expenses and so on Many are not really going concerns and few have grown significantly over the nearly 25 years since establishment.However, there is a new phase of investment in some of our A1 and A2 sites with urban based professionals, some with diaspora connections or recently having retired, coming to invest through leasing or even purchasing land (see earlier blogs on ‘new entrants’) In A1 areas this is happening mostly in self-contained sites where a whole ‘farm’ can be acquired and invested in These areas are like small A2 farms and have a quite different feel to the villagised sites.Case 9: HH, Clare, A1 self-containedHH, a 57-year-old man, worked as a secondary school teacher in Botswana since 2008 When land reform begun in the year 2000, he had no interest in gaining access to land He saw land reform as a political gimmick and had no interest in farming at the time, despite having a solid farming background He explained, “During land reform, I was one of those people who were spending most of their time at the bar drinking alcohol I was not interested You see, interest in farming has something to do with age.” It was “only later in life” that he realised that he needed land “I asked myself that, “what will I do when I retire without land?”, he says This prompted him to look for land, and he managed to obtain a self-contained plot “by chance” The plot belonged to one of the war veterans who was the leader of farm invasions in the early 2000s This war veteran had managed to acquire several plots and registered them in relatives’ names This particular plot was registered in the war veteran’s son’s name When the war veteran passed away, the son sold the plot to HH for USD7000 in 2014 There was no structure and no fence on the farm – “it was just ground”, he said Since acquiring the farm, HH has invested substantially on the farm, including clearing 2ha of arable land, buying livestock, fencing the whole farm, drilling a borehole, installing a submersible pump for USD3000 and building a comfortable rural homestead Funds came mostly from his savings from his job as a teacher Today, he owns a herd of 20 cattle and 11 goats He primarily grows sugar beans and sells at Serima High School where his wife works as an administrator A few years ago, he ventured into horticulture, but the ‘project’ floundered due to difficulties in running a farm while away As he declared, “Farm management by cellphone is very difficult If you are not there, it’s very hard for the project to be a success.”Case 10: CZ, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagised59-year-old CZ is a retired nurse and his wife works as a school teacher at Wondedzo secondary school The household purchased an A1 plot in 2010 from a land beneficiary (MM) whose father had a self-contained plot Following the death of his father, MMinherited his father’s self-contained plot Hence, he decided to sell his A1 plot to CZ, who at the time was living at the local clinic CZ gave the seller two head of cattle as payment There was only one hut on the plot, although the crop field was cleared Since purchasing the plot, CZ has gradually made significant investments on the farm with savings from his wages alongside bank loans In 2011, the household constructed a three-roomed brick and iron roof house and renovated a round brick and thatch kitchen they found there In 2016, they built another 4-roomed house with a combination of income from maize sales, horticulture, loans and wages In 2011, they also managed to purchase cattle with proceeds from horticulture Their herd later increased to 17 However, all but 4 died due to January disease In 2017, the household bought a grinding mill with a loan, and bought another one in 2020 As civil servants, they had access to relatively low-interest loans from reputable banks such as Agri-Bank In 2018, CZ and his wife took a bank loan and used it to drill a borehole, install solar panels and three submersible pumps costing around USD2800 His children also regularly provide remittances.Accumulation from aboveAs in all our sites there are examples of accumulation from above, particularly in the early period when land was claimed This occurred in the A1 areas when those with connections (often through their war veteran status) were able to claim ‘self-contained’ plots rather than being allocated to villagised areas The same individuals often had close associations with the District Land Committees and were able to influence subsequent land allocations in favour of relatives and others However the amount of subsequent patronage resources that flowed to Masvingo areas has been minimal, and few benefited from the notoriousRBZ Farm Mechanisation Schemein the 2000s andCommand Agriculturein the 2010s There were some A2 farmers in our sample who again were politically well connected but not many, and these connections often did not result in the flow of resources as these were diverted elsewhere Such individuals would often complain to us that despite their status they were not receiving anything and that they were just like everyone else.Decumulation and declineThere are different patterns of decline across our Masvingo sites As noted earlier there is a demographically linked decline in A1 areas as older parents, once energetic surplus maize farmers, are no longer able to achieve such production levels Partly this is because of a changing climate (rice for example, once a staple in the area, has virtually disappeared), but mostly declines are because of ill health, death and lack of family labour or funding to support hiring This decline, as already discussed is in part offset in cases where there is successful generation transition and also through leasing out land to new entrants.Decline in the A2 areas is due to similar factors, but also because A2 farming overall has suffered throughlack of finance and support.A2 farming is a tough business proposition in the Masvingo area and few have really made it without significant subsidies from outside Some have had patronage windfalls, but these have had little overall effect; others are reliant on support from external jobs (paying in US dollars, like in the NGO sector, UN jobs, lawyers etc.) Those with external jobs to drive investment are surviving but probably not on very economic terms as cash is quickly absorbed in loss making concerns The only period when some A2 farms in Masvingo were doing reasonably well was in theGNU periodwhen some semblance of economic stability prevailed for a few years and investment was possible Before and since, business has been extremely difficult in the absence of sustainable farm finance from banks.As a result, a number of A2 farms have been slowly abandoned, leaving few workers or relatives but with little economic activity There are as a result large areas of land being made available for leasing and even purchase This new injection of funds and investment is however slower and less dramatic than in the Mvurwi area where returns are higher and more assured.In some cases, some relatively large A2 farms have been subject to downsizing and subdivisions Most were once allocated to political elites who have since passed away and have been inherited by their widows or children With loss of political clout, their farms have been subject to downsizing amid allegations of ‘under-utilisation’ In our Masvingo-Gutu A2 sample, two farms that were once allocated to two political elites have been downsized following their death For example, SM, a former minister was allocated 1200 ha of land in the early 2000s He passed away in 2016 In 2021, the Lands Office decided to downsize the farm and carved out 12 additional plots that were then allocated to civil servants and a few politically-connected individuals His surviving widow was left with 100ha of land In another A2 farm, a total of 40 plots were created following the death of the original land beneficiary whose father was a political heavyweight in the rural party, with much influence locally.What of the future?As in all our sites, sustaining the trajectory of accumulation from below seen in the early years of land reform has been challenging Some have been successful by changing strategy (from maize to irrigated horticulture) or via deploying considerable labour (as in Apostolic follower families), but others have seen declines in accumulation over time, particularly as the original household heads age or die The question of succession and generational transfer is at the centre of the challenge for the future, and we see some hopeful examples where projects or new commercial investments are led by adult children with resources or by outsider coming as new entrants to invest on lease arrangements.However, this is by no means a standard story and we see other plots abandoned or suffering from very low production levels This has been particularly the case in the A2 farms where sustaining a commercial farm operation without considerableexternal finance(not available through commercial banks) is nigh on impossible Much will depend on the wider investment environment and the stability of the economy – we saw the potentials that relative stability brought in theGNU period– and the degree to which farm enterprises in a not especially high potential area – perhaps declining due to climate change and the drying up of vleis/wetlands – are attractive to both new investors and the next generation.This blog, the third in a series on the dynamics of accumulation, has been written by Ian Scoones and Tapiwa Chatikobo, with inputs from Felix Murimbarimba (who facilitated the workshops), Godfrey Mahofa, Jacob Mahenehene, Sydney Jones (Matobo), Moses Mutoko (Masvingo), Makiwa Manaka (Gutu), Vincent Sarayi/Peter Tsungu (Mvurwi) amongst many others in each of our sites This blog first appeared onZimbabwelandPost published in:FeaturedRelatedWhen Did We as a Society Sink So Low?British Bishop Runs 268 Miles With Dog, Raises £35,000 To Build School In MatabelelandLeave a ReplyCancel reply Our Masvingo province A1 sites – Wondedzo and Sanangwe near Masvingo town and Clare and Lonely A near Chatsworth in Gutu – are classic dryland maize growing areas In good years, many tonnes of surplus are produced for sale or storage, and these moments provide the spur to invest and accumulate The years after land redistribution saw some excellent harvests and once people had cleared land, they profited from large outputs Large areas were planted, and granaries were bulging with maize grain The areas planted were often virgin soil as previously the land was used for cattle ranching, so the yields were boosted due to good soil fertility, even if on otherwise poor sandy soils in miombo woodland areas.During these years in our A1 sites many in our sample invested in fine homes, along with the continuing to support children in education, now often upgraded to boarding and other better schools as the quality of public education declined Cattle were purchased and herds built up in the then plentiful grazing areas This pattern however did not last There was a sequence of droughts that reduced crop yields, and the effort used to plant large outfields was increasingly seen as not worth it Later, cattle populations were hit by disease and many people ended up with few animals, insufficient to form a span for ploughing.An alternative strategy for accumulation was sought through the investments made in the early years, and this involved intensification of production, usually around horticulture Intensification has meant a contraction of ‘outfield’ area and so maize production, and this is important for those who lack energy and labour to plough large dryland areas This is a region of the country where vleis (wetlands) dot the landscape and vegetable growing with supplementary irrigation has become an important focus for many, especially for women but increasingly for men.Investment in boreholes, irrigation pumps, pipesand other infrastructure, together with vehicles for transporting crops, was a critical avenue for spending funds generated by surplus maize These horticultural enterprises were highly reliant on good markets, but entrepreneurial farmers were able to make connections with supermarkets in Masvingo and traders in the ‘train’ market in the town Those in Gutu have more recently suffered the ending of the goods train service to Masvingo and the splitting of theAFM church, which in the past used to hold huge gatherings in Rufaro just outside Chatsworth and so a ready market for vegetable growers and other vendors COVID-19 and restrictions on movement also curtailed the market expansion, but many found ways around lockdown rules as we discussed in our research on the pandemic.OurA2 sitesare very different There are some farms that are focused on arable production, a few that are specialised in horticulture, but many, particularly in the Gutu and Chatsworth areas, are livestock focused enterprises, replicating the production system that the former white commercial farms followed prior to land reform, but on much smaller areas These farms have had mixed fortunes, with some successes, but many failures at least in terms of the ‘ideal’ of an independent medium commercial farm sector While some are effectively abandoned with land being held speculatively, others are now leasing out land for rental to others, and others still are attracting in relatives to create village settlements on the farm, essentially with each homestead following a small-scale farming approach As a result, the dynamics of accumulation across our A2 sample is extremely varied, both across farms and across time, as fortunes have varied over the last decades.Across our Masvingo A1 and A2 sites, we therefore see a number of different accumulation patterns, with particular gender characteristics These overlap with those in Mvurwi discussed in the last blog but have their distinct characteristics Below we outline a number of these (which overlap or are sequenced), illustrated with cases from our qualitative biographical interviews At this stage, we cannot say for sure what proportion of each strategy existed across our sample households at different points of time This will have to await our survey later this year and the analysis of our longitudinal data across years Clearly, as we have discussed before, accumulation from below dominates, but does this get followed by decline or renewal This depends on a whole array of factors discussed below, all of which are pertinent to thinking about future rural development policies and support strategies.Accumulation from below then declineThose arriving in the A1 areas as part of ‘jambanja’ invasions set up base camps in areas that were essentially bush The former farms had very limited cultivated areas, usually near the homestead They started from nothing, but soon were accumulating as big maize producers In the self-contained A1 areas of Clare and Wondedzo Extension, this was often spectacular The villagised schemes also had important accumulators, but in these areas the levels of surplus were smaller Most people however produced more than a tonne of maize in nearly all years, and so were able to invest and accumulate.This was very much a ‘big man’ investment pathway and women often focused on their smaller plots – of groundnuts,nyimoand so on – as well as their vegetable gardens In many ways the early years replicated the old ‘hurudza’ story from many decades ago in the communal areas when there was sufficient land and people owned large herds for manure and draft power In the villagised areas, there was more pressure from others to come and settle and, through both official and informal routes, the areas of land available – especially for grazing – shrunk, particularly in the Sanangwe site where about 64 households were resettled by the District Administrator and village heads as they had settled on an ungazetted farm nearby In this respect these areas began to feel much more like the current communal areas, where field sizes are smaller, grazing areas settled in and where there is an increasing focus on different styles of intensive gardening.The attenuation of the accumulation from below trajectory happened in different ways In the self-contained areas, there was less pressure on land, but old age and death of usually male land holders resulted in a contraction of production possibilities In the villagised areas, demographic changes were also significant, but fewer animals (due to less grazing, drought and disease) had a big impact too As the cases show, in some instances homes were abandoned as no one was there to take over (often due to family disputes and challenges with succession) or taken over by a widow without the capacities to manage the farm to full, and with only some selective support from now adult children.Case 1: RS, Clare, A1 self-containedRS was born in 1963 at Rasa near Bhasera in Gutu communal area He acquired land in 2000 He was one of the leaders of the invasion He was allocated a plot of 70 hectares in size, and quickly cleared 9 ha for farming He invested substantially in the new area He built a good home, with four houses In 2008, he owned 14 cattle and 51 goats, as well as other agricultural equipment such as ploughs and scotch-carts He was also a good networker, able to make connections which have benefited his livelihood options During the early years of resettlement, he held several positions at local level, including secretary for the war veteran group during the land invasions (which he helped coordinate across several farms), Base Commander of Clare farm, and later elected Political Commissar for Ward 32 then ZANU-PF Party Chairman He was also elected Secretary for Lands and Resettlement in the District Coordinating Committee These connections allowed him to gain access to government schemes, most notably through Operation Maguta, and he received seed and fertiliser on loan However, in 2008, a series of events led to a decline He and one of his wives had fallen acutely ill; they were treated for tuberculosis and diagnosed as HIV positive RS and his wife’s ill health derailed the household’s production and sapped the household’s resources In 2009, RS tried to burn down the house where his now estranged second wife lived She escaped and fled, while he was later arrested and charged However, before the case could be heard, he took his own life in May 2009 Following his death and that of his first wife, the estranged wife left for South Africa, leaving the plot unoccupied In 2012, after ‘nyaradzo’ (a ceremony held following the death of a person), RS’s brothers asked RS’s oldest son (MS) to take over the farm as the first-born son RS’s brothers also asked MS’s mother – RS’s first wife whom he had divorced a long time ago – to return at the farm This created tension with the family, and one of the half-siblings accused MS of grabbing all the father’s assets This prompted MS and his mother to abandon the farm Although the half-brothers have “reconciled”, nothing is happening at the farm to this day.Case 2: JH, Clare, AJH is 72 years old She and her husband acquired a self-contained plot in Clare in the year 2000 They were both full-time farmers in the nearby Serima communal areas At settlement, they had 8 head of cattle and a plough Between 2001 and 2002, the household cleared 9ha of crop field They grew a variety of crops, including maize, rapoko, sweet potatoes, roundnuts and groundnuts for both consumption and sale From 2003 to 2009, the household managed to buy a scotch-cart, plough and cultivator, fencing the whole farm and creating fenced paddocks, as well as educating their last-born son up to Form 6 with maize proceeds They also slowly managed to build up their herd to 17 at the time They were good farmers with a good record of selling maize to GMB, which made it possible for to gain access to inputs from Operation Maguta However, a series of events has led to a decline These include the death of JH’s husband in 2010, old age, January disease, which led to the death of cattle (resulting in lack of draft power and adequate manure) and children who were once a source of cheap labour have come of age and left for urban jobs All these factors have led to the reduction of area cultivated from 9ha to 2ha She explained: “A lot of things have changed When my husband was still alive, we used to harvest a lot of maize In Ward 1, we were always number 1 every season when it comes to crop farming It’s all gone now All things come to an end Who can do what my husband was doing now My husband would never leave the crop fields Every season we would hold a ‘humwe’ I would brew traditional beer and my husband would invite his friends from Chiriga for humwe Now I can’t do all this when ‘baba vemusha’ (father of homestead) is no longer there.”Case 3: NV, Lonely, A1 villagised75-year NV and her now late husband obtained land in 2000 Her husband worked as a general hand at a Greek-owned store in Chatsworth from 1978 until his retirement in 1998 and took up farming on a full time basis in the communal areas In the early 2000s, NV’s husband joined jambanja and was one of the leaders of invaders in the area The household later acquired an A1 plot in Lonely.On acquiring land, NV and her husband steadily invested in their land with proceeds from farming They came with 18 cattle, a plough and cultivator Thanks to good grazing, the household steadily built up its herd At one time, the herd increased up to 44 They even had two spans of four oxen each Using proceeds from farming, they also invested in two irrigation pumps that they moved between their new land and old communal area home With adequate draft power and manure, they would cultivate their 4ha crop field and 2.5ha ‘doro’ field situated in the vlei In 2008, the household was regarded as relatively successful But a series of unfortunate events led to a drastic decline In 2017, NV’s husband passed away following a long illness In 2020, the household had 44 head of cattle During the January Disease outbreak, NV lost most of her cattle and she is now left with 6 cattle In 2020, her second-born son (born 1972) who was employed as a headmaster at a nearby school committed suicide Meanwhile, her last born son’s economic fortunes has ebbed drastically over time He had been running a business in Harare, supplying stationery to over 10 schools there However, starting from 2020, the business began to collapse In 2022, her first born son (born 1970) who was also a headmaster at a secondary school died after a short illness All these events hit NV’s family very hard She lost her two sons, while her youngest son’s business collapsed – all of whom provided remittances.Accumulation, then decline then improvementThere are others who have followed a similar trajectory to that described above, but with a twist – they have managed to negotiate a successful succession to a next generation A big question for many farmers in our sample – both A1 and A2 is whether kids who they have educated often to very high levels will come back and take over the farm Many such sons and daughters are living way, often abroad, and doing reasonably well in jobs What is the incentive to return Rural homes, especially in our Masvingo sample, are much better equipped than those in the communal areas of old There are multiple bedrooms, solar power and lighting, even internet connections Parents feel it’s an enticement for their children that things are‘like town’.Road connections are better, and cars are plentiful, so it’s not a matter of taking a rural bus and walking for miles But there are still relatively few households that have managed the generational transition successfully In many homes there are beginnings: projects invested in by absent children, often in the diaspora, but not really taking on the whole farm operation The cases below show some examples where children are present and investing even if not full-time resident or are joining parents on subdivided farms and investing in multiple projects Maybe it is too early for others to do this, but very often if both parents have died and the children are not present the most likely scenario is farm abandonment rather than regeneration, so many argue this transfer must happen while both generations are present.Case 4: RM, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagisedRM, a 60-year-old widow, obtained a 4ha A1 plot in the year 2000 Initially, her household had initially settled illegally in a farm in Nemamwa after realising the difficulties of town life, but were removed by the state Her now late husband worked as a mechanic in Bulawayo and later Masvingo In 2003, only three years after settlement, RM’s husband passed away, leaving her with three young children (one boy and two girls) Following the death of her husband, she struggled to gain a foothold in farming During this period, she also fell seriously ill due HIV/AIDS related illnesses She struggled to produce enough surplus to accumulate and educate her children When her oldest son passed his Form 4, a pastor from her AFM church provided financial support that enabled her son to do ‘A’ level Her son later enrolled for a diploma in accounting at Masvingo Polytechnic College Upon completion in 2010, he then found a job at ZIMRA With a good job, the son was then able to invest substantially on the farm with his wages, starting with replacing pole and mud houses with a six-roomed house installed with solar system and flush toilets In 2020, he drilled a borehole and installed a submersible solar pump, jojo tank and irrigation The son is also engaging in horticulture, which RM manages while her son is still at work The son also runs a butchery business in town While things are looking up for RM’s household, she constantly worries about succession She complained that her son and his wife were not bringing their children to the farm frequently and long enough to allow her to pass the knowledge of farming to her grandchildren as she once did to her own children She emphasised the need to encourage children at young age to learn agricultural skills.Case 5: AM, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedAM is now in her early 80s She acquired a plot in Wondedzo extension on her own account in the early 2000s, although her husband helped her to choose a strategic plot with access to water At that time, her husband was working as a bus inspector in Masvingo On acquiring the land, the household cleared a 5ha arable field, moved their large herd to the plot and built a good home Her husband later passed away in 2006, but the household maintained its standing She grew maize, rapoko and groundnuts She regularly sold maize to GMB In 2021, in consultations with her children, she took the decision to return to her communal areas home in nearby Masvingise area due to old age As a family, they then decided to exchange the plot with her sister’s son who had a smaller A1 villagised plot in Stanmore B irrigation plot They approached the District Administrator (DA) so that he could facilitate the process However, the DA was against the idea As she said, “the DA first asked if we were related to the person who we wanted to exchange the land with I told him that he was my sister’s son And, he said, in that case, “this was not right” He asked why I was giving away my own children’s ‘nhaka’ (inheritance) to someone else’s son “Your sister’s son does not share the same blood with your children Instead, he advised us to go back home and think carefully again We returned to the DA several times, but remained the same Seeing that the DA was not going to approve our request, my children (including married daughters) then sat down among themselves and decided that my youngest son (T) should take over the plot as he had not inherited anything from the parents The older son (TB) had inherited the old homestead in communal areas and house in Masvingo town following the death of their father So, it was only fair that the young son also inherits the plot Once they had agreed, the children then secretly built a new homestead within the old stand in the communal areas and comfortably furnished it for their mother “This made me very happy that my children could come up with such a plan If the DA had approved our request, we would have got rid of the plot I am grateful to this day.” Today, her son who is also a successful businessman in Gweru is now the new owner of the plot and is now registered in his name He owns nearly 200 cattle, and is even renting additional grazing land from other farmers It is therefore not surprising that the household retains its success thanks to careful succession planning.Case 6: EC, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedEC and her husband acquired a plot in Wondedzo Extension in 2000 Her husband worked as a mechanic for many years before he retired in 2000 and became a pastor of a Pentecostal church The household invested in housing infrastructure and clearing of 10ha of crop fields At settlement, they had a herd of 8 cattle, which later increased to 35 through natural growth They regularly harvested a lot of maize (up to 30 tonnes in good seasons) and sold to GMB They also engaged in horticulture near Mutirikwi river, and sold their products (leafy vegetables, onions and tomatoes) at KuTrain market They managed to set up a private school (linked to the church) and to educate their children (some up to tertiary level) – all through farming One of her daughters works as a school teacher at the family’s private school, another daughter as a secretary at the same school and the other is self-employed as a cross-border trader At one point, the household had 8 oxen (making two spans of 4 oxen), and hired as many as four permanent workers From 2014 through to 2023, the household also constructed a very large modern house, which is comfortably furnished, using income from cattle and maize sales But in 2021, EC’s husband passed away after a short illness Despite his death, the household has fared well, largely because the daughters are sending remittances back home (often from the school), which is important for paying workers and buying inputs Both of her two sons are at home, farming with her, although the younger son suffers from mental illness Currently, the household owns 16 head of cattle Last season, the household was selected by the local extension officer and received inputs for wheat production under Command Agriculture.Case 7: AS, Wondedzo ExtensionAS is 82 years old He belongs to the Johanne Masowe church He has five wives and over 30 children AS acquired a 35ha plot in 2000 with the help of his son-in-law who was a war veteran and leader of invasions during the time His 9 sons and three wives have all established their own homesteads within the plot All his sons are self-employed – buying and selling goods in town, while engaging in small ‘projects’ at the farm, especially intensive horticulture Each son has access to between one and two hectares of land One of his sons managed to drill a borehole with income from ‘kungwavha-ngwavha’ In 2020, AS’s former employer drilled a borehole for AS, fenced off 1ha with security fence, and installed a jojo tank and irrigation pipes Overall, the farm has become a village operation, with sons and wives pursuing small agricultural ‘projects’ at home, alongside petty trading in nearby Masvingo town.Accumulation from below through expansion of a family labour force focusing on intensive horticultureFamilies following theApostolic church (Johanne Masowe)really perfected the intensive horticulture strategy Starting off very poor and relying on intermittent maize harvests, they soon negotiated access to land near streams and rivers and started deploying family labour (many wives and children) in horticulture, which increasingly became a sophisticated and intensive operation This expanded through investment in dryland areas throughdrilling boreholes and upgrading pumps Today this network of families deploying hundreds of people through family labour is a force to be reckoned with in the regional horticultural market having diversified away from the classic formula of tomatoes and cabbages to a whole array of products.Case 8: EM, Wondedzo, A1 self-containedEM is 45 years old His parents acquired land in the early 2000s But in 2004, his father passed away As the first-born son, EM took over the plot, although his siblings also remained on the plot and established their own homesteads within the plot Today, the plot has become a ‘village within the plot’ as EM and his siblings have established their homesteads and fields There is a total of six homesteads within the farm belonging to the sons, of which most are engaging in horticulture In 2006, EM started irrigating a small area with buckets from a small dam He grew vegetables, which he sold locally and in Masvingo From the proceeds, he was able to purchase a foot water pump In 2010, he then purchased a 5 HP pump for US$220 and irrigation pipes in the following year As a member of the Mapostori sect, he has 31 wives and many children who are all a source of cheap labour He has since invested in a 30 HP pump and has drilled a borehole Today, EM operates one of the largest horticulture enterprises in Wondedzo Extension.Accumulation from outsideMany of those who have been accumulating from below have links to town and off-farm businesses, but this is not such a driving force for investment in the A1 schemes, unlike in the A2 farms that are almost exclusively financed through investment from outside Many of the A2 farms in our Masvingo study areas are cattle ranches, but operating on a far smaller scale than the huge farms that were previously managed by a few white farming families in this area Cattle ranching on a small area is challenging and requires external funding to support supplementary feed, the leasing of grazing land, veterinary expenses and so on Many are not really going concerns and few have grown significantly over the nearly 25 years since establishment.However, there is a new phase of investment in some of our A1 and A2 sites with urban based professionals, some with diaspora connections or recently having retired, coming to invest through leasing or even purchasing land (see earlier blogs on ‘new entrants’) In A1 areas this is happening mostly in self-contained sites where a whole ‘farm’ can be acquired and invested in These areas are like small A2 farms and have a quite different feel to the villagised sites.Case 9: HH, Clare, A1 self-containedHH, a 57-year-old man, worked as a secondary school teacher in Botswana since 2008 When land reform begun in the year 2000, he had no interest in gaining access to land He saw land reform as a political gimmick and had no interest in farming at the time, despite having a solid farming background He explained, “During land reform, I was one of those people who were spending most of their time at the bar drinking alcohol I was not interested You see, interest in farming has something to do with age.” It was “only later in life” that he realised that he needed land “I asked myself that, “what will I do when I retire without land?”, he says This prompted him to look for land, and he managed to obtain a self-contained plot “by chance” The plot belonged to one of the war veterans who was the leader of farm invasions in the early 2000s This war veteran had managed to acquire several plots and registered them in relatives’ names This particular plot was registered in the war veteran’s son’s name When the war veteran passed away, the son sold the plot to HH for USD7000 in 2014 There was no structure and no fence on the farm – “it was just ground”, he said Since acquiring the farm, HH has invested substantially on the farm, including clearing 2ha of arable land, buying livestock, fencing the whole farm, drilling a borehole, installing a submersible pump for USD3000 and building a comfortable rural homestead Funds came mostly from his savings from his job as a teacher Today, he owns a herd of 20 cattle and 11 goats He primarily grows sugar beans and sells at Serima High School where his wife works as an administrator A few years ago, he ventured into horticulture, but the ‘project’ floundered due to difficulties in running a farm while away As he declared, “Farm management by cellphone is very difficult If you are not there, it’s very hard for the project to be a success.”Case 10: CZ, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagised59-year-old CZ is a retired nurse and his wife works as a school teacher at Wondedzo secondary school The household purchased an A1 plot in 2010 from a land beneficiary (MM) whose father had a self-contained plot Following the death of his father, MMinherited his father’s self-contained plot Hence, he decided to sell his A1 plot to CZ, who at the time was living at the local clinic CZ gave the seller two head of cattle as payment There was only one hut on the plot, although the crop field was cleared Since purchasing the plot, CZ has gradually made significant investments on the farm with savings from his wages alongside bank loans In 2011, the household constructed a three-roomed brick and iron roof house and renovated a round brick and thatch kitchen they found there In 2016, they built another 4-roomed house with a combination of income from maize sales, horticulture, loans and wages In 2011, they also managed to purchase cattle with proceeds from horticulture Their herd later increased to 17 However, all but 4 died due to January disease In 2017, the household bought a grinding mill with a loan, and bought another one in 2020 As civil servants, they had access to relatively low-interest loans from reputable banks such as Agri-Bank In 2018, CZ and his wife took a bank loan and used it to drill a borehole, install solar panels and three submersible pumps costing around USD2800 His children also regularly provide remittances.Accumulation from aboveAs in all our sites there are examples of accumulation from above, particularly in the early period when land was claimed This occurred in the A1 areas when those with connections (often through their war veteran status) were able to claim ‘self-contained’ plots rather than being allocated to villagised areas The same individuals often had close associations with the District Land Committees and were able to influence subsequent land allocations in favour of relatives and others However the amount of subsequent patronage resources that flowed to Masvingo areas has been minimal, and few benefited from the notoriousRBZ Farm Mechanisation Schemein the 2000s andCommand Agriculturein the 2010s There were some A2 farmers in our sample who again were politically well connected but not many, and these connections often did not result in the flow of resources as these were diverted elsewhere Such individuals would often complain to us that despite their status they were not receiving anything and that they were just like everyone else.Decumulation and declineThere are different patterns of decline across our Masvingo sites As noted earlier there is a demographically linked decline in A1 areas as older parents, once energetic surplus maize farmers, are no longer able to achieve such production levels Partly this is because of a changing climate (rice for example, once a staple in the area, has virtually disappeared), but mostly declines are because of ill health, death and lack of family labour or funding to support hiring This decline, as already discussed is in part offset in cases where there is successful generation transition and also through leasing out land to new entrants.Decline in the A2 areas is due to similar factors, but also because A2 farming overall has suffered throughlack of finance and support.A2 farming is a tough business proposition in the Masvingo area and few have really made it without significant subsidies from outside Some have had patronage windfalls, but these have had little overall effect; others are reliant on support from external jobs (paying in US dollars, like in the NGO sector, UN jobs, lawyers etc.) Those with external jobs to drive investment are surviving but probably not on very economic terms as cash is quickly absorbed in loss making concerns The only period when some A2 farms in Masvingo were doing reasonably well was in theGNU periodwhen some semblance of economic stability prevailed for a few years and investment was possible Before and since, business has been extremely difficult in the absence of sustainable farm finance from banks.As a result, a number of A2 farms have been slowly abandoned, leaving few workers or relatives but with little economic activity There are as a result large areas of land being made available for leasing and even purchase This new injection of funds and investment is however slower and less dramatic than in the Mvurwi area where returns are higher and more assured.In some cases, some relatively large A2 farms have been subject to downsizing and subdivisions Most were once allocated to political elites who have since passed away and have been inherited by their widows or children With loss of political clout, their farms have been subject to downsizing amid allegations of ‘under-utilisation’ In our Masvingo-Gutu A2 sample, two farms that were once allocated to two political elites have been downsized following their death For example, SM, a former minister was allocated 1200 ha of land in the early 2000s He passed away in 2016 In 2021, the Lands Office decided to downsize the farm and carved out 12 additional plots that were then allocated to civil servants and a few politically-connected individuals His surviving widow was left with 100ha of land In another A2 farm, a total of 40 plots were created following the death of the original land beneficiary whose father was a political heavyweight in the rural party, with much influence locally.What of the future?As in all our sites, sustaining the trajectory of accumulation from below seen in the early years of land reform has been challenging Some have been successful by changing strategy (from maize to irrigated horticulture) or via deploying considerable labour (as in Apostolic follower families), but others have seen declines in accumulation over time, particularly as the original household heads age or die The question of succession and generational transfer is at the centre of the challenge for the future, and we see some hopeful examples where projects or new commercial investments are led by adult children with resources or by outsider coming as new entrants to invest on lease arrangements.However, this is by no means a standard story and we see other plots abandoned or suffering from very low production levels This has been particularly the case in the A2 farms where sustaining a commercial farm operation without considerableexternal finance(not available through commercial banks) is nigh on impossible Much will depend on the wider investment environment and the stability of the economy – we saw the potentials that relative stability brought in theGNU period– and the degree to which farm enterprises in a not especially high potential area – perhaps declining due to climate change and the drying up of vleis/wetlands – are attractive to both new investors and the next generation.This blog, the third in a series on the dynamics of accumulation, has been written by Ian Scoones and Tapiwa Chatikobo, with inputs from Felix Murimbarimba (who facilitated the workshops), Godfrey Mahofa, Jacob Mahenehene, Sydney Jones (Matobo), Moses Mutoko (Masvingo), Makiwa Manaka (Gutu), Vincent Sarayi/Peter Tsungu (Mvurwi) amongst many others in each of our sites This blog first appeared onZimbabwelandPost published in:FeaturedRelatedWhen Did We as a Society Sink So Low?British Bishop Runs 268 Miles With Dog, Raises £35,000 To Build School In MatabelelandLeave a ReplyCancel reply Our Masvingo province A1 sites – Wondedzo and Sanangwe near Masvingo town and Clare and Lonely A near Chatsworth in Gutu – are classic dryland maize growing areas In good years, many tonnes of surplus are produced for sale or storage, and these moments provide the spur to invest and accumulate The years after land redistribution saw some excellent harvests and once people had cleared land, they profited from large outputs Large areas were planted, and granaries were bulging with maize grain The areas planted were often virgin soil as previously the land was used for cattle ranching, so the yields were boosted due to good soil fertility, even if on otherwise poor sandy soils in miombo woodland areas Our Masvingo province A1 sites – Wondedzo and Sanangwe near Masvingo town and Clare and Lonely A near Chatsworth in Gutu – are classic dryland maize growing areas In good years, many tonnes of surplus are produced for sale or storage, and these moments provide the spur to invest and accumulate The years after land redistribution saw some excellent harvests and once people had cleared land, they profited from large outputs Large areas were planted, and granaries were bulging with maize grain The areas planted were often virgin soil as previously the land was used for cattle ranching, so the yields were boosted due to good soil fertility, even if on otherwise poor sandy soils in miombo woodland areas During these years in our A1 sites many in our sample invested in fine homes, along with the continuing to support children in education, now often upgraded to boarding and other better schools as the quality of public education declined Cattle were purchased and herds built up in the then plentiful grazing areas This pattern however did not last There was a sequence of droughts that reduced crop yields, and the effort used to plant large outfields was increasingly seen as not worth it Later, cattle populations were hit by disease and many people ended up with few animals, insufficient to form a span for ploughing.An alternative strategy for accumulation was sought through the investments made in the early years, and this involved intensification of production, usually around horticulture Intensification has meant a contraction of ‘outfield’ area and so maize production, and this is important for those who lack energy and labour to plough large dryland areas This is a region of the country where vleis (wetlands) dot the landscape and vegetable growing with supplementary irrigation has become an important focus for many, especially for women but increasingly for men.Investment in boreholes, irrigation pumps, pipesand other infrastructure, together with vehicles for transporting crops, was a critical avenue for spending funds generated by surplus maize These horticultural enterprises were highly reliant on good markets, but entrepreneurial farmers were able to make connections with supermarkets in Masvingo and traders in the ‘train’ market in the town Those in Gutu have more recently suffered the ending of the goods train service to Masvingo and the splitting of theAFM church, which in the past used to hold huge gatherings in Rufaro just outside Chatsworth and so a ready market for vegetable growers and other vendors COVID-19 and restrictions on movement also curtailed the market expansion, but many found ways around lockdown rules as we discussed in our research on the pandemic.OurA2 sitesare very different There are some farms that are focused on arable production, a few that are specialised in horticulture, but many, particularly in the Gutu and Chatsworth areas, are livestock focused enterprises, replicating the production system that the former white commercial farms followed prior to land reform, but on much smaller areas These farms have had mixed fortunes, with some successes, but many failures at least in terms of the ‘ideal’ of an independent medium commercial farm sector While some are effectively abandoned with land being held speculatively, others are now leasing out land for rental to others, and others still are attracting in relatives to create village settlements on the farm, essentially with each homestead following a small-scale farming approach As a result, the dynamics of accumulation across our A2 sample is extremely varied, both across farms and across time, as fortunes have varied over the last decades.Across our Masvingo A1 and A2 sites, we therefore see a number of different accumulation patterns, with particular gender characteristics These overlap with those in Mvurwi discussed in the last blog but have their distinct characteristics Below we outline a number of these (which overlap or are sequenced), illustrated with cases from our qualitative biographical interviews At this stage, we cannot say for sure what proportion of each strategy existed across our sample households at different points of time This will have to await our survey later this year and the analysis of our longitudinal data across years Clearly, as we have discussed before, accumulation from below dominates, but does this get followed by decline or renewal This depends on a whole array of factors discussed below, all of which are pertinent to thinking about future rural development policies and support strategies.Accumulation from below then declineThose arriving in the A1 areas as part of ‘jambanja’ invasions set up base camps in areas that were essentially bush The former farms had very limited cultivated areas, usually near the homestead They started from nothing, but soon were accumulating as big maize producers In the self-contained A1 areas of Clare and Wondedzo Extension, this was often spectacular The villagised schemes also had important accumulators, but in these areas the levels of surplus were smaller Most people however produced more than a tonne of maize in nearly all years, and so were able to invest and accumulate.This was very much a ‘big man’ investment pathway and women often focused on their smaller plots – of groundnuts,nyimoand so on – as well as their vegetable gardens In many ways the early years replicated the old ‘hurudza’ story from many decades ago in the communal areas when there was sufficient land and people owned large herds for manure and draft power In the villagised areas, there was more pressure from others to come and settle and, through both official and informal routes, the areas of land available – especially for grazing – shrunk, particularly in the Sanangwe site where about 64 households were resettled by the District Administrator and village heads as they had settled on an ungazetted farm nearby In this respect these areas began to feel much more like the current communal areas, where field sizes are smaller, grazing areas settled in and where there is an increasing focus on different styles of intensive gardening.The attenuation of the accumulation from below trajectory happened in different ways In the self-contained areas, there was less pressure on land, but old age and death of usually male land holders resulted in a contraction of production possibilities In the villagised areas, demographic changes were also significant, but fewer animals (due to less grazing, drought and disease) had a big impact too As the cases show, in some instances homes were abandoned as no one was there to take over (often due to family disputes and challenges with succession) or taken over by a widow without the capacities to manage the farm to full, and with only some selective support from now adult children.Case 1: RS, Clare, A1 self-containedRS was born in 1963 at Rasa near Bhasera in Gutu communal area He acquired land in 2000 He was one of the leaders of the invasion He was allocated a plot of 70 hectares in size, and quickly cleared 9 ha for farming He invested substantially in the new area He built a good home, with four houses In 2008, he owned 14 cattle and 51 goats, as well as other agricultural equipment such as ploughs and scotch-carts He was also a good networker, able to make connections which have benefited his livelihood options During the early years of resettlement, he held several positions at local level, including secretary for the war veteran group during the land invasions (which he helped coordinate across several farms), Base Commander of Clare farm, and later elected Political Commissar for Ward 32 then ZANU-PF Party Chairman He was also elected Secretary for Lands and Resettlement in the District Coordinating Committee These connections allowed him to gain access to government schemes, most notably through Operation Maguta, and he received seed and fertiliser on loan However, in 2008, a series of events led to a decline He and one of his wives had fallen acutely ill; they were treated for tuberculosis and diagnosed as HIV positive RS and his wife’s ill health derailed the household’s production and sapped the household’s resources In 2009, RS tried to burn down the house where his now estranged second wife lived She escaped and fled, while he was later arrested and charged However, before the case could be heard, he took his own life in May 2009 Following his death and that of his first wife, the estranged wife left for South Africa, leaving the plot unoccupied In 2012, after ‘nyaradzo’ (a ceremony held following the death of a person), RS’s brothers asked RS’s oldest son (MS) to take over the farm as the first-born son RS’s brothers also asked MS’s mother – RS’s first wife whom he had divorced a long time ago – to return at the farm This created tension with the family, and one of the half-siblings accused MS of grabbing all the father’s assets This prompted MS and his mother to abandon the farm Although the half-brothers have “reconciled”, nothing is happening at the farm to this day.Case 2: JH, Clare, AJH is 72 years old She and her husband acquired a self-contained plot in Clare in the year 2000 They were both full-time farmers in the nearby Serima communal areas At settlement, they had 8 head of cattle and a plough Between 2001 and 2002, the household cleared 9ha of crop field They grew a variety of crops, including maize, rapoko, sweet potatoes, roundnuts and groundnuts for both consumption and sale From 2003 to 2009, the household managed to buy a scotch-cart, plough and cultivator, fencing the whole farm and creating fenced paddocks, as well as educating their last-born son up to Form 6 with maize proceeds They also slowly managed to build up their herd to 17 at the time They were good farmers with a good record of selling maize to GMB, which made it possible for to gain access to inputs from Operation Maguta However, a series of events has led to a decline These include the death of JH’s husband in 2010, old age, January disease, which led to the death of cattle (resulting in lack of draft power and adequate manure) and children who were once a source of cheap labour have come of age and left for urban jobs All these factors have led to the reduction of area cultivated from 9ha to 2ha She explained: “A lot of things have changed When my husband was still alive, we used to harvest a lot of maize In Ward 1, we were always number 1 every season when it comes to crop farming It’s all gone now All things come to an end Who can do what my husband was doing now My husband would never leave the crop fields Every season we would hold a ‘humwe’ I would brew traditional beer and my husband would invite his friends from Chiriga for humwe Now I can’t do all this when ‘baba vemusha’ (father of homestead) is no longer there.”Case 3: NV, Lonely, A1 villagised75-year NV and her now late husband obtained land in 2000 Her husband worked as a general hand at a Greek-owned store in Chatsworth from 1978 until his retirement in 1998 and took up farming on a full time basis in the communal areas In the early 2000s, NV’s husband joined jambanja and was one of the leaders of invaders in the area The household later acquired an A1 plot in Lonely.On acquiring land, NV and her husband steadily invested in their land with proceeds from farming They came with 18 cattle, a plough and cultivator Thanks to good grazing, the household steadily built up its herd At one time, the herd increased up to 44 They even had two spans of four oxen each Using proceeds from farming, they also invested in two irrigation pumps that they moved between their new land and old communal area home With adequate draft power and manure, they would cultivate their 4ha crop field and 2.5ha ‘doro’ field situated in the vlei In 2008, the household was regarded as relatively successful But a series of unfortunate events led to a drastic decline In 2017, NV’s husband passed away following a long illness In 2020, the household had 44 head of cattle During the January Disease outbreak, NV lost most of her cattle and she is now left with 6 cattle In 2020, her second-born son (born 1972) who was employed as a headmaster at a nearby school committed suicide Meanwhile, her last born son’s economic fortunes has ebbed drastically over time He had been running a business in Harare, supplying stationery to over 10 schools there However, starting from 2020, the business began to collapse In 2022, her first born son (born 1970) who was also a headmaster at a secondary school died after a short illness All these events hit NV’s family very hard She lost her two sons, while her youngest son’s business collapsed – all of whom provided remittances.Accumulation, then decline then improvementThere are others who have followed a similar trajectory to that described above, but with a twist – they have managed to negotiate a successful succession to a next generation A big question for many farmers in our sample – both A1 and A2 is whether kids who they have educated often to very high levels will come back and take over the farm Many such sons and daughters are living way, often abroad, and doing reasonably well in jobs What is the incentive to return Rural homes, especially in our Masvingo sample, are much better equipped than those in the communal areas of old There are multiple bedrooms, solar power and lighting, even internet connections Parents feel it’s an enticement for their children that things are‘like town’.Road connections are better, and cars are plentiful, so it’s not a matter of taking a rural bus and walking for miles But there are still relatively few households that have managed the generational transition successfully In many homes there are beginnings: projects invested in by absent children, often in the diaspora, but not really taking on the whole farm operation The cases below show some examples where children are present and investing even if not full-time resident or are joining parents on subdivided farms and investing in multiple projects Maybe it is too early for others to do this, but very often if both parents have died and the children are not present the most likely scenario is farm abandonment rather than regeneration, so many argue this transfer must happen while both generations are present.Case 4: RM, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagisedRM, a 60-year-old widow, obtained a 4ha A1 plot in the year 2000 Initially, her household had initially settled illegally in a farm in Nemamwa after realising the difficulties of town life, but were removed by the state Her now late husband worked as a mechanic in Bulawayo and later Masvingo In 2003, only three years after settlement, RM’s husband passed away, leaving her with three young children (one boy and two girls) Following the death of her husband, she struggled to gain a foothold in farming During this period, she also fell seriously ill due HIV/AIDS related illnesses She struggled to produce enough surplus to accumulate and educate her children When her oldest son passed his Form 4, a pastor from her AFM church provided financial support that enabled her son to do ‘A’ level Her son later enrolled for a diploma in accounting at Masvingo Polytechnic College Upon completion in 2010, he then found a job at ZIMRA With a good job, the son was then able to invest substantially on the farm with his wages, starting with replacing pole and mud houses with a six-roomed house installed with solar system and flush toilets In 2020, he drilled a borehole and installed a submersible solar pump, jojo tank and irrigation The son is also engaging in horticulture, which RM manages while her son is still at work The son also runs a butchery business in town While things are looking up for RM’s household, she constantly worries about succession She complained that her son and his wife were not bringing their children to the farm frequently and long enough to allow her to pass the knowledge of farming to her grandchildren as she once did to her own children She emphasised the need to encourage children at young age to learn agricultural skills.Case 5: AM, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedAM is now in her early 80s She acquired a plot in Wondedzo extension on her own account in the early 2000s, although her husband helped her to choose a strategic plot with access to water At that time, her husband was working as a bus inspector in Masvingo On acquiring the land, the household cleared a 5ha arable field, moved their large herd to the plot and built a good home Her husband later passed away in 2006, but the household maintained its standing She grew maize, rapoko and groundnuts She regularly sold maize to GMB In 2021, in consultations with her children, she took the decision to return to her communal areas home in nearby Masvingise area due to old age As a family, they then decided to exchange the plot with her sister’s son who had a smaller A1 villagised plot in Stanmore B irrigation plot They approached the District Administrator (DA) so that he could facilitate the process However, the DA was against the idea As she said, “the DA first asked if we were related to the person who we wanted to exchange the land with I told him that he was my sister’s son And, he said, in that case, “this was not right” He asked why I was giving away my own children’s ‘nhaka’ (inheritance) to someone else’s son “Your sister’s son does not share the same blood with your children Instead, he advised us to go back home and think carefully again We returned to the DA several times, but remained the same Seeing that the DA was not going to approve our request, my children (including married daughters) then sat down among themselves and decided that my youngest son (T) should take over the plot as he had not inherited anything from the parents The older son (TB) had inherited the old homestead in communal areas and house in Masvingo town following the death of their father So, it was only fair that the young son also inherits the plot Once they had agreed, the children then secretly built a new homestead within the old stand in the communal areas and comfortably furnished it for their mother “This made me very happy that my children could come up with such a plan If the DA had approved our request, we would have got rid of the plot I am grateful to this day.” Today, her son who is also a successful businessman in Gweru is now the new owner of the plot and is now registered in his name He owns nearly 200 cattle, and is even renting additional grazing land from other farmers It is therefore not surprising that the household retains its success thanks to careful succession planning.Case 6: EC, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedEC and her husband acquired a plot in Wondedzo Extension in 2000 Her husband worked as a mechanic for many years before he retired in 2000 and became a pastor of a Pentecostal church The household invested in housing infrastructure and clearing of 10ha of crop fields At settlement, they had a herd of 8 cattle, which later increased to 35 through natural growth They regularly harvested a lot of maize (up to 30 tonnes in good seasons) and sold to GMB They also engaged in horticulture near Mutirikwi river, and sold their products (leafy vegetables, onions and tomatoes) at KuTrain market They managed to set up a private school (linked to the church) and to educate their children (some up to tertiary level) – all through farming One of her daughters works as a school teacher at the family’s private school, another daughter as a secretary at the same school and the other is self-employed as a cross-border trader At one point, the household had 8 oxen (making two spans of 4 oxen), and hired as many as four permanent workers From 2014 through to 2023, the household also constructed a very large modern house, which is comfortably furnished, using income from cattle and maize sales But in 2021, EC’s husband passed away after a short illness Despite his death, the household has fared well, largely because the daughters are sending remittances back home (often from the school), which is important for paying workers and buying inputs Both of her two sons are at home, farming with her, although the younger son suffers from mental illness Currently, the household owns 16 head of cattle Last season, the household was selected by the local extension officer and received inputs for wheat production under Command Agriculture.Case 7: AS, Wondedzo ExtensionAS is 82 years old He belongs to the Johanne Masowe church He has five wives and over 30 children AS acquired a 35ha plot in 2000 with the help of his son-in-law who was a war veteran and leader of invasions during the time His 9 sons and three wives have all established their own homesteads within the plot All his sons are self-employed – buying and selling goods in town, while engaging in small ‘projects’ at the farm, especially intensive horticulture Each son has access to between one and two hectares of land One of his sons managed to drill a borehole with income from ‘kungwavha-ngwavha’ In 2020, AS’s former employer drilled a borehole for AS, fenced off 1ha with security fence, and installed a jojo tank and irrigation pipes Overall, the farm has become a village operation, with sons and wives pursuing small agricultural ‘projects’ at home, alongside petty trading in nearby Masvingo town.Accumulation from below through expansion of a family labour force focusing on intensive horticultureFamilies following theApostolic church (Johanne Masowe)really perfected the intensive horticulture strategy Starting off very poor and relying on intermittent maize harvests, they soon negotiated access to land near streams and rivers and started deploying family labour (many wives and children) in horticulture, which increasingly became a sophisticated and intensive operation This expanded through investment in dryland areas throughdrilling boreholes and upgrading pumps Today this network of families deploying hundreds of people through family labour is a force to be reckoned with in the regional horticultural market having diversified away from the classic formula of tomatoes and cabbages to a whole array of products.Case 8: EM, Wondedzo, A1 self-containedEM is 45 years old His parents acquired land in the early 2000s But in 2004, his father passed away As the first-born son, EM took over the plot, although his siblings also remained on the plot and established their own homesteads within the plot Today, the plot has become a ‘village within the plot’ as EM and his siblings have established their homesteads and fields There is a total of six homesteads within the farm belonging to the sons, of which most are engaging in horticulture In 2006, EM started irrigating a small area with buckets from a small dam He grew vegetables, which he sold locally and in Masvingo From the proceeds, he was able to purchase a foot water pump In 2010, he then purchased a 5 HP pump for US$220 and irrigation pipes in the following year As a member of the Mapostori sect, he has 31 wives and many children who are all a source of cheap labour He has since invested in a 30 HP pump and has drilled a borehole Today, EM operates one of the largest horticulture enterprises in Wondedzo Extension.Accumulation from outsideMany of those who have been accumulating from below have links to town and off-farm businesses, but this is not such a driving force for investment in the A1 schemes, unlike in the A2 farms that are almost exclusively financed through investment from outside Many of the A2 farms in our Masvingo study areas are cattle ranches, but operating on a far smaller scale than the huge farms that were previously managed by a few white farming families in this area Cattle ranching on a small area is challenging and requires external funding to support supplementary feed, the leasing of grazing land, veterinary expenses and so on Many are not really going concerns and few have grown significantly over the nearly 25 years since establishment.However, there is a new phase of investment in some of our A1 and A2 sites with urban based professionals, some with diaspora connections or recently having retired, coming to invest through leasing or even purchasing land (see earlier blogs on ‘new entrants’) In A1 areas this is happening mostly in self-contained sites where a whole ‘farm’ can be acquired and invested in These areas are like small A2 farms and have a quite different feel to the villagised sites.Case 9: HH, Clare, A1 self-containedHH, a 57-year-old man, worked as a secondary school teacher in Botswana since 2008 When land reform begun in the year 2000, he had no interest in gaining access to land He saw land reform as a political gimmick and had no interest in farming at the time, despite having a solid farming background He explained, “During land reform, I was one of those people who were spending most of their time at the bar drinking alcohol I was not interested You see, interest in farming has something to do with age.” It was “only later in life” that he realised that he needed land “I asked myself that, “what will I do when I retire without land?”, he says This prompted him to look for land, and he managed to obtain a self-contained plot “by chance” The plot belonged to one of the war veterans who was the leader of farm invasions in the early 2000s This war veteran had managed to acquire several plots and registered them in relatives’ names This particular plot was registered in the war veteran’s son’s name When the war veteran passed away, the son sold the plot to HH for USD7000 in 2014 There was no structure and no fence on the farm – “it was just ground”, he said Since acquiring the farm, HH has invested substantially on the farm, including clearing 2ha of arable land, buying livestock, fencing the whole farm, drilling a borehole, installing a submersible pump for USD3000 and building a comfortable rural homestead Funds came mostly from his savings from his job as a teacher Today, he owns a herd of 20 cattle and 11 goats He primarily grows sugar beans and sells at Serima High School where his wife works as an administrator A few years ago, he ventured into horticulture, but the ‘project’ floundered due to difficulties in running a farm while away As he declared, “Farm management by cellphone is very difficult If you are not there, it’s very hard for the project to be a success.”Case 10: CZ, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagised59-year-old CZ is a retired nurse and his wife works as a school teacher at Wondedzo secondary school The household purchased an A1 plot in 2010 from a land beneficiary (MM) whose father had a self-contained plot Following the death of his father, MMinherited his father’s self-contained plot Hence, he decided to sell his A1 plot to CZ, who at the time was living at the local clinic CZ gave the seller two head of cattle as payment There was only one hut on the plot, although the crop field was cleared Since purchasing the plot, CZ has gradually made significant investments on the farm with savings from his wages alongside bank loans In 2011, the household constructed a three-roomed brick and iron roof house and renovated a round brick and thatch kitchen they found there In 2016, they built another 4-roomed house with a combination of income from maize sales, horticulture, loans and wages In 2011, they also managed to purchase cattle with proceeds from horticulture Their herd later increased to 17 However, all but 4 died due to January disease In 2017, the household bought a grinding mill with a loan, and bought another one in 2020 As civil servants, they had access to relatively low-interest loans from reputable banks such as Agri-Bank In 2018, CZ and his wife took a bank loan and used it to drill a borehole, install solar panels and three submersible pumps costing around USD2800 His children also regularly provide remittances.Accumulation from aboveAs in all our sites there are examples of accumulation from above, particularly in the early period when land was claimed This occurred in the A1 areas when those with connections (often through their war veteran status) were able to claim ‘self-contained’ plots rather than being allocated to villagised areas The same individuals often had close associations with the District Land Committees and were able to influence subsequent land allocations in favour of relatives and others However the amount of subsequent patronage resources that flowed to Masvingo areas has been minimal, and few benefited from the notoriousRBZ Farm Mechanisation Schemein the 2000s andCommand Agriculturein the 2010s There were some A2 farmers in our sample who again were politically well connected but not many, and these connections often did not result in the flow of resources as these were diverted elsewhere Such individuals would often complain to us that despite their status they were not receiving anything and that they were just like everyone else.Decumulation and declineThere are different patterns of decline across our Masvingo sites As noted earlier there is a demographically linked decline in A1 areas as older parents, once energetic surplus maize farmers, are no longer able to achieve such production levels Partly this is because of a changing climate (rice for example, once a staple in the area, has virtually disappeared), but mostly declines are because of ill health, death and lack of family labour or funding to support hiring This decline, as already discussed is in part offset in cases where there is successful generation transition and also through leasing out land to new entrants.Decline in the A2 areas is due to similar factors, but also because A2 farming overall has suffered throughlack of finance and support.A2 farming is a tough business proposition in the Masvingo area and few have really made it without significant subsidies from outside Some have had patronage windfalls, but these have had little overall effect; others are reliant on support from external jobs (paying in US dollars, like in the NGO sector, UN jobs, lawyers etc.) Those with external jobs to drive investment are surviving but probably not on very economic terms as cash is quickly absorbed in loss making concerns The only period when some A2 farms in Masvingo were doing reasonably well was in theGNU periodwhen some semblance of economic stability prevailed for a few years and investment was possible Before and since, business has been extremely difficult in the absence of sustainable farm finance from banks.As a result, a number of A2 farms have been slowly abandoned, leaving few workers or relatives but with little economic activity There are as a result large areas of land being made available for leasing and even purchase This new injection of funds and investment is however slower and less dramatic than in the Mvurwi area where returns are higher and more assured.In some cases, some relatively large A2 farms have been subject to downsizing and subdivisions Most were once allocated to political elites who have since passed away and have been inherited by their widows or children With loss of political clout, their farms have been subject to downsizing amid allegations of ‘under-utilisation’ In our Masvingo-Gutu A2 sample, two farms that were once allocated to two political elites have been downsized following their death For example, SM, a former minister was allocated 1200 ha of land in the early 2000s He passed away in 2016 In 2021, the Lands Office decided to downsize the farm and carved out 12 additional plots that were then allocated to civil servants and a few politically-connected individuals His surviving widow was left with 100ha of land In another A2 farm, a total of 40 plots were created following the death of the original land beneficiary whose father was a political heavyweight in the rural party, with much influence locally.What of the future?As in all our sites, sustaining the trajectory of accumulation from below seen in the early years of land reform has been challenging Some have been successful by changing strategy (from maize to irrigated horticulture) or via deploying considerable labour (as in Apostolic follower families), but others have seen declines in accumulation over time, particularly as the original household heads age or die The question of succession and generational transfer is at the centre of the challenge for the future, and we see some hopeful examples where projects or new commercial investments are led by adult children with resources or by outsider coming as new entrants to invest on lease arrangements.However, this is by no means a standard story and we see other plots abandoned or suffering from very low production levels This has been particularly the case in the A2 farms where sustaining a commercial farm operation without considerableexternal finance(not available through commercial banks) is nigh on impossible Much will depend on the wider investment environment and the stability of the economy – we saw the potentials that relative stability brought in theGNU period– and the degree to which farm enterprises in a not especially high potential area – perhaps declining due to climate change and the drying up of vleis/wetlands – are attractive to both new investors and the next generation.This blog, the third in a series on the dynamics of accumulation, has been written by Ian Scoones and Tapiwa Chatikobo, with inputs from Felix Murimbarimba (who facilitated the workshops), Godfrey Mahofa, Jacob Mahenehene, Sydney Jones (Matobo), Moses Mutoko (Masvingo), Makiwa Manaka (Gutu), Vincent Sarayi/Peter Tsungu (Mvurwi) amongst many others in each of our sites This blog first appeared onZimbabwelandPost published in:FeaturedRelatedWhen Did We as a Society Sink So Low?British Bishop Runs 268 Miles With Dog, Raises £35,000 To Build School In Matabeleland During these years in our A1 sites many in our sample invested in fine homes, along with the continuing to support children in education, now often upgraded to boarding and other better schools as the quality of public education declined Cattle were purchased and herds built up in the then plentiful grazing areas This pattern however did not last There was a sequence of droughts that reduced crop yields, and the effort used to plant large outfields was increasingly seen as not worth it Later, cattle populations were hit by disease and many people ended up with few animals, insufficient to form a span for ploughing.An alternative strategy for accumulation was sought through the investments made in the early years, and this involved intensification of production, usually around horticulture Intensification has meant a contraction of ‘outfield’ area and so maize production, and this is important for those who lack energy and labour to plough large dryland areas This is a region of the country where vleis (wetlands) dot the landscape and vegetable growing with supplementary irrigation has become an important focus for many, especially for women but increasingly for men.Investment in boreholes, irrigation pumps, pipesand other infrastructure, together with vehicles for transporting crops, was a critical avenue for spending funds generated by surplus maize These horticultural enterprises were highly reliant on good markets, but entrepreneurial farmers were able to make connections with supermarkets in Masvingo and traders in the ‘train’ market in the town Those in Gutu have more recently suffered the ending of the goods train service to Masvingo and the splitting of theAFM church, which in the past used to hold huge gatherings in Rufaro just outside Chatsworth and so a ready market for vegetable growers and other vendors COVID-19 and restrictions on movement also curtailed the market expansion, but many found ways around lockdown rules as we discussed in our research on the pandemic.OurA2 sitesare very different There are some farms that are focused on arable production, a few that are specialised in horticulture, but many, particularly in the Gutu and Chatsworth areas, are livestock focused enterprises, replicating the production system that the former white commercial farms followed prior to land reform, but on much smaller areas These farms have had mixed fortunes, with some successes, but many failures at least in terms of the ‘ideal’ of an independent medium commercial farm sector While some are effectively abandoned with land being held speculatively, others are now leasing out land for rental to others, and others still are attracting in relatives to create village settlements on the farm, essentially with each homestead following a small-scale farming approach As a result, the dynamics of accumulation across our A2 sample is extremely varied, both across farms and across time, as fortunes have varied over the last decades.Across our Masvingo A1 and A2 sites, we therefore see a number of different accumulation patterns, with particular gender characteristics These overlap with those in Mvurwi discussed in the last blog but have their distinct characteristics Below we outline a number of these (which overlap or are sequenced), illustrated with cases from our qualitative biographical interviews At this stage, we cannot say for sure what proportion of each strategy existed across our sample households at different points of time This will have to await our survey later this year and the analysis of our longitudinal data across years Clearly, as we have discussed before, accumulation from below dominates, but does this get followed by decline or renewal This depends on a whole array of factors discussed below, all of which are pertinent to thinking about future rural development policies and support strategies.Accumulation from below then declineThose arriving in the A1 areas as part of ‘jambanja’ invasions set up base camps in areas that were essentially bush The former farms had very limited cultivated areas, usually near the homestead They started from nothing, but soon were accumulating as big maize producers In the self-contained A1 areas of Clare and Wondedzo Extension, this was often spectacular The villagised schemes also had important accumulators, but in these areas the levels of surplus were smaller Most people however produced more than a tonne of maize in nearly all years, and so were able to invest and accumulate.This was very much a ‘big man’ investment pathway and women often focused on their smaller plots – of groundnuts,nyimoand so on – as well as their vegetable gardens In many ways the early years replicated the old ‘hurudza’ story from many decades ago in the communal areas when there was sufficient land and people owned large herds for manure and draft power In the villagised areas, there was more pressure from others to come and settle and, through both official and informal routes, the areas of land available – especially for grazing – shrunk, particularly in the Sanangwe site where about 64 households were resettled by the District Administrator and village heads as they had settled on an ungazetted farm nearby In this respect these areas began to feel much more like the current communal areas, where field sizes are smaller, grazing areas settled in and where there is an increasing focus on different styles of intensive gardening.The attenuation of the accumulation from below trajectory happened in different ways In the self-contained areas, there was less pressure on land, but old age and death of usually male land holders resulted in a contraction of production possibilities In the villagised areas, demographic changes were also significant, but fewer animals (due to less grazing, drought and disease) had a big impact too As the cases show, in some instances homes were abandoned as no one was there to take over (often due to family disputes and challenges with succession) or taken over by a widow without the capacities to manage the farm to full, and with only some selective support from now adult children.Case 1: RS, Clare, A1 self-containedRS was born in 1963 at Rasa near Bhasera in Gutu communal area He acquired land in 2000 He was one of the leaders of the invasion He was allocated a plot of 70 hectares in size, and quickly cleared 9 ha for farming He invested substantially in the new area He built a good home, with four houses In 2008, he owned 14 cattle and 51 goats, as well as other agricultural equipment such as ploughs and scotch-carts He was also a good networker, able to make connections which have benefited his livelihood options During the early years of resettlement, he held several positions at local level, including secretary for the war veteran group during the land invasions (which he helped coordinate across several farms), Base Commander of Clare farm, and later elected Political Commissar for Ward 32 then ZANU-PF Party Chairman He was also elected Secretary for Lands and Resettlement in the District Coordinating Committee These connections allowed him to gain access to government schemes, most notably through Operation Maguta, and he received seed and fertiliser on loan However, in 2008, a series of events led to a decline He and one of his wives had fallen acutely ill; they were treated for tuberculosis and diagnosed as HIV positive RS and his wife’s ill health derailed the household’s production and sapped the household’s resources In 2009, RS tried to burn down the house where his now estranged second wife lived She escaped and fled, while he was later arrested and charged However, before the case could be heard, he took his own life in May 2009 Following his death and that of his first wife, the estranged wife left for South Africa, leaving the plot unoccupied In 2012, after ‘nyaradzo’ (a ceremony held following the death of a person), RS’s brothers asked RS’s oldest son (MS) to take over the farm as the first-born son RS’s brothers also asked MS’s mother – RS’s first wife whom he had divorced a long time ago – to return at the farm This created tension with the family, and one of the half-siblings accused MS of grabbing all the father’s assets This prompted MS and his mother to abandon the farm Although the half-brothers have “reconciled”, nothing is happening at the farm to this day.Case 2: JH, Clare, AJH is 72 years old She and her husband acquired a self-contained plot in Clare in the year 2000 They were both full-time farmers in the nearby Serima communal areas At settlement, they had 8 head of cattle and a plough Between 2001 and 2002, the household cleared 9ha of crop field They grew a variety of crops, including maize, rapoko, sweet potatoes, roundnuts and groundnuts for both consumption and sale From 2003 to 2009, the household managed to buy a scotch-cart, plough and cultivator, fencing the whole farm and creating fenced paddocks, as well as educating their last-born son up to Form 6 with maize proceeds They also slowly managed to build up their herd to 17 at the time They were good farmers with a good record of selling maize to GMB, which made it possible for to gain access to inputs from Operation Maguta However, a series of events has led to a decline These include the death of JH’s husband in 2010, old age, January disease, which led to the death of cattle (resulting in lack of draft power and adequate manure) and children who were once a source of cheap labour have come of age and left for urban jobs All these factors have led to the reduction of area cultivated from 9ha to 2ha She explained: “A lot of things have changed When my husband was still alive, we used to harvest a lot of maize In Ward 1, we were always number 1 every season when it comes to crop farming It’s all gone now All things come to an end Who can do what my husband was doing now My husband would never leave the crop fields Every season we would hold a ‘humwe’ I would brew traditional beer and my husband would invite his friends from Chiriga for humwe Now I can’t do all this when ‘baba vemusha’ (father of homestead) is no longer there.”Case 3: NV, Lonely, A1 villagised75-year NV and her now late husband obtained land in 2000 Her husband worked as a general hand at a Greek-owned store in Chatsworth from 1978 until his retirement in 1998 and took up farming on a full time basis in the communal areas In the early 2000s, NV’s husband joined jambanja and was one of the leaders of invaders in the area The household later acquired an A1 plot in Lonely.On acquiring land, NV and her husband steadily invested in their land with proceeds from farming They came with 18 cattle, a plough and cultivator Thanks to good grazing, the household steadily built up its herd At one time, the herd increased up to 44 They even had two spans of four oxen each Using proceeds from farming, they also invested in two irrigation pumps that they moved between their new land and old communal area home With adequate draft power and manure, they would cultivate their 4ha crop field and 2.5ha ‘doro’ field situated in the vlei In 2008, the household was regarded as relatively successful But a series of unfortunate events led to a drastic decline In 2017, NV’s husband passed away following a long illness In 2020, the household had 44 head of cattle During the January Disease outbreak, NV lost most of her cattle and she is now left with 6 cattle In 2020, her second-born son (born 1972) who was employed as a headmaster at a nearby school committed suicide Meanwhile, her last born son’s economic fortunes has ebbed drastically over time He had been running a business in Harare, supplying stationery to over 10 schools there However, starting from 2020, the business began to collapse In 2022, her first born son (born 1970) who was also a headmaster at a secondary school died after a short illness All these events hit NV’s family very hard She lost her two sons, while her youngest son’s business collapsed – all of whom provided remittances.Accumulation, then decline then improvementThere are others who have followed a similar trajectory to that described above, but with a twist – they have managed to negotiate a successful succession to a next generation A big question for many farmers in our sample – both A1 and A2 is whether kids who they have educated often to very high levels will come back and take over the farm Many such sons and daughters are living way, often abroad, and doing reasonably well in jobs What is the incentive to return Rural homes, especially in our Masvingo sample, are much better equipped than those in the communal areas of old There are multiple bedrooms, solar power and lighting, even internet connections Parents feel it’s an enticement for their children that things are‘like town’.Road connections are better, and cars are plentiful, so it’s not a matter of taking a rural bus and walking for miles But there are still relatively few households that have managed the generational transition successfully In many homes there are beginnings: projects invested in by absent children, often in the diaspora, but not really taking on the whole farm operation The cases below show some examples where children are present and investing even if not full-time resident or are joining parents on subdivided farms and investing in multiple projects Maybe it is too early for others to do this, but very often if both parents have died and the children are not present the most likely scenario is farm abandonment rather than regeneration, so many argue this transfer must happen while both generations are present.Case 4: RM, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagisedRM, a 60-year-old widow, obtained a 4ha A1 plot in the year 2000 Initially, her household had initially settled illegally in a farm in Nemamwa after realising the difficulties of town life, but were removed by the state Her now late husband worked as a mechanic in Bulawayo and later Masvingo In 2003, only three years after settlement, RM’s husband passed away, leaving her with three young children (one boy and two girls) Following the death of her husband, she struggled to gain a foothold in farming During this period, she also fell seriously ill due HIV/AIDS related illnesses She struggled to produce enough surplus to accumulate and educate her children When her oldest son passed his Form 4, a pastor from her AFM church provided financial support that enabled her son to do ‘A’ level Her son later enrolled for a diploma in accounting at Masvingo Polytechnic College Upon completion in 2010, he then found a job at ZIMRA With a good job, the son was then able to invest substantially on the farm with his wages, starting with replacing pole and mud houses with a six-roomed house installed with solar system and flush toilets In 2020, he drilled a borehole and installed a submersible solar pump, jojo tank and irrigation The son is also engaging in horticulture, which RM manages while her son is still at work The son also runs a butchery business in town While things are looking up for RM’s household, she constantly worries about succession She complained that her son and his wife were not bringing their children to the farm frequently and long enough to allow her to pass the knowledge of farming to her grandchildren as she once did to her own children She emphasised the need to encourage children at young age to learn agricultural skills.Case 5: AM, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedAM is now in her early 80s She acquired a plot in Wondedzo extension on her own account in the early 2000s, although her husband helped her to choose a strategic plot with access to water At that time, her husband was working as a bus inspector in Masvingo On acquiring the land, the household cleared a 5ha arable field, moved their large herd to the plot and built a good home Her husband later passed away in 2006, but the household maintained its standing She grew maize, rapoko and groundnuts She regularly sold maize to GMB In 2021, in consultations with her children, she took the decision to return to her communal areas home in nearby Masvingise area due to old age As a family, they then decided to exchange the plot with her sister’s son who had a smaller A1 villagised plot in Stanmore B irrigation plot They approached the District Administrator (DA) so that he could facilitate the process However, the DA was against the idea As she said, “the DA first asked if we were related to the person who we wanted to exchange the land with I told him that he was my sister’s son And, he said, in that case, “this was not right” He asked why I was giving away my own children’s ‘nhaka’ (inheritance) to someone else’s son “Your sister’s son does not share the same blood with your children Instead, he advised us to go back home and think carefully again We returned to the DA several times, but remained the same Seeing that the DA was not going to approve our request, my children (including married daughters) then sat down among themselves and decided that my youngest son (T) should take over the plot as he had not inherited anything from the parents The older son (TB) had inherited the old homestead in communal areas and house in Masvingo town following the death of their father So, it was only fair that the young son also inherits the plot Once they had agreed, the children then secretly built a new homestead within the old stand in the communal areas and comfortably furnished it for their mother “This made me very happy that my children could come up with such a plan If the DA had approved our request, we would have got rid of the plot I am grateful to this day.” Today, her son who is also a successful businessman in Gweru is now the new owner of the plot and is now registered in his name He owns nearly 200 cattle, and is even renting additional grazing land from other farmers It is therefore not surprising that the household retains its success thanks to careful succession planning.Case 6: EC, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedEC and her husband acquired a plot in Wondedzo Extension in 2000 Her husband worked as a mechanic for many years before he retired in 2000 and became a pastor of a Pentecostal church The household invested in housing infrastructure and clearing of 10ha of crop fields At settlement, they had a herd of 8 cattle, which later increased to 35 through natural growth They regularly harvested a lot of maize (up to 30 tonnes in good seasons) and sold to GMB They also engaged in horticulture near Mutirikwi river, and sold their products (leafy vegetables, onions and tomatoes) at KuTrain market They managed to set up a private school (linked to the church) and to educate their children (some up to tertiary level) – all through farming One of her daughters works as a school teacher at the family’s private school, another daughter as a secretary at the same school and the other is self-employed as a cross-border trader At one point, the household had 8 oxen (making two spans of 4 oxen), and hired as many as four permanent workers From 2014 through to 2023, the household also constructed a very large modern house, which is comfortably furnished, using income from cattle and maize sales But in 2021, EC’s husband passed away after a short illness Despite his death, the household has fared well, largely because the daughters are sending remittances back home (often from the school), which is important for paying workers and buying inputs Both of her two sons are at home, farming with her, although the younger son suffers from mental illness Currently, the household owns 16 head of cattle Last season, the household was selected by the local extension officer and received inputs for wheat production under Command Agriculture.Case 7: AS, Wondedzo ExtensionAS is 82 years old He belongs to the Johanne Masowe church He has five wives and over 30 children AS acquired a 35ha plot in 2000 with the help of his son-in-law who was a war veteran and leader of invasions during the time His 9 sons and three wives have all established their own homesteads within the plot All his sons are self-employed – buying and selling goods in town, while engaging in small ‘projects’ at the farm, especially intensive horticulture Each son has access to between one and two hectares of land One of his sons managed to drill a borehole with income from ‘kungwavha-ngwavha’ In 2020, AS’s former employer drilled a borehole for AS, fenced off 1ha with security fence, and installed a jojo tank and irrigation pipes Overall, the farm has become a village operation, with sons and wives pursuing small agricultural ‘projects’ at home, alongside petty trading in nearby Masvingo town.Accumulation from below through expansion of a family labour force focusing on intensive horticultureFamilies following theApostolic church (Johanne Masowe)really perfected the intensive horticulture strategy Starting off very poor and relying on intermittent maize harvests, they soon negotiated access to land near streams and rivers and started deploying family labour (many wives and children) in horticulture, which increasingly became a sophisticated and intensive operation This expanded through investment in dryland areas throughdrilling boreholes and upgrading pumps Today this network of families deploying hundreds of people through family labour is a force to be reckoned with in the regional horticultural market having diversified away from the classic formula of tomatoes and cabbages to a whole array of products.Case 8: EM, Wondedzo, A1 self-containedEM is 45 years old His parents acquired land in the early 2000s But in 2004, his father passed away As the first-born son, EM took over the plot, although his siblings also remained on the plot and established their own homesteads within the plot Today, the plot has become a ‘village within the plot’ as EM and his siblings have established their homesteads and fields There is a total of six homesteads within the farm belonging to the sons, of which most are engaging in horticulture In 2006, EM started irrigating a small area with buckets from a small dam He grew vegetables, which he sold locally and in Masvingo From the proceeds, he was able to purchase a foot water pump In 2010, he then purchased a 5 HP pump for US$220 and irrigation pipes in the following year As a member of the Mapostori sect, he has 31 wives and many children who are all a source of cheap labour He has since invested in a 30 HP pump and has drilled a borehole Today, EM operates one of the largest horticulture enterprises in Wondedzo Extension.Accumulation from outsideMany of those who have been accumulating from below have links to town and off-farm businesses, but this is not such a driving force for investment in the A1 schemes, unlike in the A2 farms that are almost exclusively financed through investment from outside Many of the A2 farms in our Masvingo study areas are cattle ranches, but operating on a far smaller scale than the huge farms that were previously managed by a few white farming families in this area Cattle ranching on a small area is challenging and requires external funding to support supplementary feed, the leasing of grazing land, veterinary expenses and so on Many are not really going concerns and few have grown significantly over the nearly 25 years since establishment.However, there is a new phase of investment in some of our A1 and A2 sites with urban based professionals, some with diaspora connections or recently having retired, coming to invest through leasing or even purchasing land (see earlier blogs on ‘new entrants’) In A1 areas this is happening mostly in self-contained sites where a whole ‘farm’ can be acquired and invested in These areas are like small A2 farms and have a quite different feel to the villagised sites.Case 9: HH, Clare, A1 self-containedHH, a 57-year-old man, worked as a secondary school teacher in Botswana since 2008 When land reform begun in the year 2000, he had no interest in gaining access to land He saw land reform as a political gimmick and had no interest in farming at the time, despite having a solid farming background He explained, “During land reform, I was one of those people who were spending most of their time at the bar drinking alcohol I was not interested You see, interest in farming has something to do with age.” It was “only later in life” that he realised that he needed land “I asked myself that, “what will I do when I retire without land?”, he says This prompted him to look for land, and he managed to obtain a self-contained plot “by chance” The plot belonged to one of the war veterans who was the leader of farm invasions in the early 2000s This war veteran had managed to acquire several plots and registered them in relatives’ names This particular plot was registered in the war veteran’s son’s name When the war veteran passed away, the son sold the plot to HH for USD7000 in 2014 There was no structure and no fence on the farm – “it was just ground”, he said Since acquiring the farm, HH has invested substantially on the farm, including clearing 2ha of arable land, buying livestock, fencing the whole farm, drilling a borehole, installing a submersible pump for USD3000 and building a comfortable rural homestead Funds came mostly from his savings from his job as a teacher Today, he owns a herd of 20 cattle and 11 goats He primarily grows sugar beans and sells at Serima High School where his wife works as an administrator A few years ago, he ventured into horticulture, but the ‘project’ floundered due to difficulties in running a farm while away As he declared, “Farm management by cellphone is very difficult If you are not there, it’s very hard for the project to be a success.”Case 10: CZ, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagised59-year-old CZ is a retired nurse and his wife works as a school teacher at Wondedzo secondary school The household purchased an A1 plot in 2010 from a land beneficiary (MM) whose father had a self-contained plot Following the death of his father, MMinherited his father’s self-contained plot Hence, he decided to sell his A1 plot to CZ, who at the time was living at the local clinic CZ gave the seller two head of cattle as payment There was only one hut on the plot, although the crop field was cleared Since purchasing the plot, CZ has gradually made significant investments on the farm with savings from his wages alongside bank loans In 2011, the household constructed a three-roomed brick and iron roof house and renovated a round brick and thatch kitchen they found there In 2016, they built another 4-roomed house with a combination of income from maize sales, horticulture, loans and wages In 2011, they also managed to purchase cattle with proceeds from horticulture Their herd later increased to 17 However, all but 4 died due to January disease In 2017, the household bought a grinding mill with a loan, and bought another one in 2020 As civil servants, they had access to relatively low-interest loans from reputable banks such as Agri-Bank In 2018, CZ and his wife took a bank loan and used it to drill a borehole, install solar panels and three submersible pumps costing around USD2800 His children also regularly provide remittances.Accumulation from aboveAs in all our sites there are examples of accumulation from above, particularly in the early period when land was claimed This occurred in the A1 areas when those with connections (often through their war veteran status) were able to claim ‘self-contained’ plots rather than being allocated to villagised areas The same individuals often had close associations with the District Land Committees and were able to influence subsequent land allocations in favour of relatives and others However the amount of subsequent patronage resources that flowed to Masvingo areas has been minimal, and few benefited from the notoriousRBZ Farm Mechanisation Schemein the 2000s andCommand Agriculturein the 2010s There were some A2 farmers in our sample who again were politically well connected but not many, and these connections often did not result in the flow of resources as these were diverted elsewhere Such individuals would often complain to us that despite their status they were not receiving anything and that they were just like everyone else.Decumulation and declineThere are different patterns of decline across our Masvingo sites As noted earlier there is a demographically linked decline in A1 areas as older parents, once energetic surplus maize farmers, are no longer able to achieve such production levels Partly this is because of a changing climate (rice for example, once a staple in the area, has virtually disappeared), but mostly declines are because of ill health, death and lack of family labour or funding to support hiring This decline, as already discussed is in part offset in cases where there is successful generation transition and also through leasing out land to new entrants.Decline in the A2 areas is due to similar factors, but also because A2 farming overall has suffered throughlack of finance and support.A2 farming is a tough business proposition in the Masvingo area and few have really made it without significant subsidies from outside Some have had patronage windfalls, but these have had little overall effect; others are reliant on support from external jobs (paying in US dollars, like in the NGO sector, UN jobs, lawyers etc.) Those with external jobs to drive investment are surviving but probably not on very economic terms as cash is quickly absorbed in loss making concerns The only period when some A2 farms in Masvingo were doing reasonably well was in theGNU periodwhen some semblance of economic stability prevailed for a few years and investment was possible Before and since, business has been extremely difficult in the absence of sustainable farm finance from banks.As a result, a number of A2 farms have been slowly abandoned, leaving few workers or relatives but with little economic activity There are as a result large areas of land being made available for leasing and even purchase This new injection of funds and investment is however slower and less dramatic than in the Mvurwi area where returns are higher and more assured.In some cases, some relatively large A2 farms have been subject to downsizing and subdivisions Most were once allocated to political elites who have since passed away and have been inherited by their widows or children With loss of political clout, their farms have been subject to downsizing amid allegations of ‘under-utilisation’ In our Masvingo-Gutu A2 sample, two farms that were once allocated to two political elites have been downsized following their death For example, SM, a former minister was allocated 1200 ha of land in the early 2000s He passed away in 2016 In 2021, the Lands Office decided to downsize the farm and carved out 12 additional plots that were then allocated to civil servants and a few politically-connected individuals His surviving widow was left with 100ha of land In another A2 farm, a total of 40 plots were created following the death of the original land beneficiary whose father was a political heavyweight in the rural party, with much influence locally.What of the future?As in all our sites, sustaining the trajectory of accumulation from below seen in the early years of land reform has been challenging Some have been successful by changing strategy (from maize to irrigated horticulture) or via deploying considerable labour (as in Apostolic follower families), but others have seen declines in accumulation over time, particularly as the original household heads age or die The question of succession and generational transfer is at the centre of the challenge for the future, and we see some hopeful examples where projects or new commercial investments are led by adult children with resources or by outsider coming as new entrants to invest on lease arrangements.However, this is by no means a standard story and we see other plots abandoned or suffering from very low production levels This has been particularly the case in the A2 farms where sustaining a commercial farm operation without considerableexternal finance(not available through commercial banks) is nigh on impossible Much will depend on the wider investment environment and the stability of the economy – we saw the potentials that relative stability brought in theGNU period– and the degree to which farm enterprises in a not especially high potential area – perhaps declining due to climate change and the drying up of vleis/wetlands – are attractive to both new investors and the next generation.This blog, the third in a series on the dynamics of accumulation, has been written by Ian Scoones and Tapiwa Chatikobo, with inputs from Felix Murimbarimba (who facilitated the workshops), Godfrey Mahofa, Jacob Mahenehene, Sydney Jones (Matobo), Moses Mutoko (Masvingo), Makiwa Manaka (Gutu), Vincent Sarayi/Peter Tsungu (Mvurwi) amongst many others in each of our sites This blog first appeared onZimbabwelandPost published in:Featured During these years in our A1 sites many in our sample invested in fine homes, along with the continuing to support children in education, now often upgraded to boarding and other better schools as the quality of public education declined Cattle were purchased and herds built up in the then plentiful grazing areas This pattern however did not last There was a sequence of droughts that reduced crop yields, and the effort used to plant large outfields was increasingly seen as not worth it Later, cattle populations were hit by disease and many people ended up with few animals, insufficient to form a span for ploughing.An alternative strategy for accumulation was sought through the investments made in the early years, and this involved intensification of production, usually around horticulture Intensification has meant a contraction of ‘outfield’ area and so maize production, and this is important for those who lack energy and labour to plough large dryland areas This is a region of the country where vleis (wetlands) dot the landscape and vegetable growing with supplementary irrigation has become an important focus for many, especially for women but increasingly for men.Investment in boreholes, irrigation pumps, pipesand other infrastructure, together with vehicles for transporting crops, was a critical avenue for spending funds generated by surplus maize These horticultural enterprises were highly reliant on good markets, but entrepreneurial farmers were able to make connections with supermarkets in Masvingo and traders in the ‘train’ market in the town Those in Gutu have more recently suffered the ending of the goods train service to Masvingo and the splitting of theAFM church, which in the past used to hold huge gatherings in Rufaro just outside Chatsworth and so a ready market for vegetable growers and other vendors COVID-19 and restrictions on movement also curtailed the market expansion, but many found ways around lockdown rules as we discussed in our research on the pandemic.OurA2 sitesare very different There are some farms that are focused on arable production, a few that are specialised in horticulture, but many, particularly in the Gutu and Chatsworth areas, are livestock focused enterprises, replicating the production system that the former white commercial farms followed prior to land reform, but on much smaller areas These farms have had mixed fortunes, with some successes, but many failures at least in terms of the ‘ideal’ of an independent medium commercial farm sector While some are effectively abandoned with land being held speculatively, others are now leasing out land for rental to others, and others still are attracting in relatives to create village settlements on the farm, essentially with each homestead following a small-scale farming approach As a result, the dynamics of accumulation across our A2 sample is extremely varied, both across farms and across time, as fortunes have varied over the last decades.Across our Masvingo A1 and A2 sites, we therefore see a number of different accumulation patterns, with particular gender characteristics These overlap with those in Mvurwi discussed in the last blog but have their distinct characteristics Below we outline a number of these (which overlap or are sequenced), illustrated with cases from our qualitative biographical interviews At this stage, we cannot say for sure what proportion of each strategy existed across our sample households at different points of time This will have to await our survey later this year and the analysis of our longitudinal data across years Clearly, as we have discussed before, accumulation from below dominates, but does this get followed by decline or renewal This depends on a whole array of factors discussed below, all of which are pertinent to thinking about future rural development policies and support strategies.Accumulation from below then declineThose arriving in the A1 areas as part of ‘jambanja’ invasions set up base camps in areas that were essentially bush The former farms had very limited cultivated areas, usually near the homestead They started from nothing, but soon were accumulating as big maize producers In the self-contained A1 areas of Clare and Wondedzo Extension, this was often spectacular The villagised schemes also had important accumulators, but in these areas the levels of surplus were smaller Most people however produced more than a tonne of maize in nearly all years, and so were able to invest and accumulate.This was very much a ‘big man’ investment pathway and women often focused on their smaller plots – of groundnuts,nyimoand so on – as well as their vegetable gardens In many ways the early years replicated the old ‘hurudza’ story from many decades ago in the communal areas when there was sufficient land and people owned large herds for manure and draft power In the villagised areas, there was more pressure from others to come and settle and, through both official and informal routes, the areas of land available – especially for grazing – shrunk, particularly in the Sanangwe site where about 64 households were resettled by the District Administrator and village heads as they had settled on an ungazetted farm nearby In this respect these areas began to feel much more like the current communal areas, where field sizes are smaller, grazing areas settled in and where there is an increasing focus on different styles of intensive gardening.The attenuation of the accumulation from below trajectory happened in different ways In the self-contained areas, there was less pressure on land, but old age and death of usually male land holders resulted in a contraction of production possibilities In the villagised areas, demographic changes were also significant, but fewer animals (due to less grazing, drought and disease) had a big impact too As the cases show, in some instances homes were abandoned as no one was there to take over (often due to family disputes and challenges with succession) or taken over by a widow without the capacities to manage the farm to full, and with only some selective support from now adult children.Case 1: RS, Clare, A1 self-containedRS was born in 1963 at Rasa near Bhasera in Gutu communal area He acquired land in 2000 He was one of the leaders of the invasion He was allocated a plot of 70 hectares in size, and quickly cleared 9 ha for farming He invested substantially in the new area He built a good home, with four houses In 2008, he owned 14 cattle and 51 goats, as well as other agricultural equipment such as ploughs and scotch-carts He was also a good networker, able to make connections which have benefited his livelihood options During the early years of resettlement, he held several positions at local level, including secretary for the war veteran group during the land invasions (which he helped coordinate across several farms), Base Commander of Clare farm, and later elected Political Commissar for Ward 32 then ZANU-PF Party Chairman He was also elected Secretary for Lands and Resettlement in the District Coordinating Committee These connections allowed him to gain access to government schemes, most notably through Operation Maguta, and he received seed and fertiliser on loan However, in 2008, a series of events led to a decline He and one of his wives had fallen acutely ill; they were treated for tuberculosis and diagnosed as HIV positive RS and his wife’s ill health derailed the household’s production and sapped the household’s resources In 2009, RS tried to burn down the house where his now estranged second wife lived She escaped and fled, while he was later arrested and charged However, before the case could be heard, he took his own life in May 2009 Following his death and that of his first wife, the estranged wife left for South Africa, leaving the plot unoccupied In 2012, after ‘nyaradzo’ (a ceremony held following the death of a person), RS’s brothers asked RS’s oldest son (MS) to take over the farm as the first-born son RS’s brothers also asked MS’s mother – RS’s first wife whom he had divorced a long time ago – to return at the farm This created tension with the family, and one of the half-siblings accused MS of grabbing all the father’s assets This prompted MS and his mother to abandon the farm Although the half-brothers have “reconciled”, nothing is happening at the farm to this day.Case 2: JH, Clare, AJH is 72 years old She and her husband acquired a self-contained plot in Clare in the year 2000 They were both full-time farmers in the nearby Serima communal areas At settlement, they had 8 head of cattle and a plough Between 2001 and 2002, the household cleared 9ha of crop field They grew a variety of crops, including maize, rapoko, sweet potatoes, roundnuts and groundnuts for both consumption and sale From 2003 to 2009, the household managed to buy a scotch-cart, plough and cultivator, fencing the whole farm and creating fenced paddocks, as well as educating their last-born son up to Form 6 with maize proceeds They also slowly managed to build up their herd to 17 at the time They were good farmers with a good record of selling maize to GMB, which made it possible for to gain access to inputs from Operation Maguta However, a series of events has led to a decline These include the death of JH’s husband in 2010, old age, January disease, which led to the death of cattle (resulting in lack of draft power and adequate manure) and children who were once a source of cheap labour have come of age and left for urban jobs All these factors have led to the reduction of area cultivated from 9ha to 2ha She explained: “A lot of things have changed When my husband was still alive, we used to harvest a lot of maize In Ward 1, we were always number 1 every season when it comes to crop farming It’s all gone now All things come to an end Who can do what my husband was doing now My husband would never leave the crop fields Every season we would hold a ‘humwe’ I would brew traditional beer and my husband would invite his friends from Chiriga for humwe Now I can’t do all this when ‘baba vemusha’ (father of homestead) is no longer there.”Case 3: NV, Lonely, A1 villagised75-year NV and her now late husband obtained land in 2000 Her husband worked as a general hand at a Greek-owned store in Chatsworth from 1978 until his retirement in 1998 and took up farming on a full time basis in the communal areas In the early 2000s, NV’s husband joined jambanja and was one of the leaders of invaders in the area The household later acquired an A1 plot in Lonely.On acquiring land, NV and her husband steadily invested in their land with proceeds from farming They came with 18 cattle, a plough and cultivator Thanks to good grazing, the household steadily built up its herd At one time, the herd increased up to 44 They even had two spans of four oxen each Using proceeds from farming, they also invested in two irrigation pumps that they moved between their new land and old communal area home With adequate draft power and manure, they would cultivate their 4ha crop field and 2.5ha ‘doro’ field situated in the vlei In 2008, the household was regarded as relatively successful But a series of unfortunate events led to a drastic decline In 2017, NV’s husband passed away following a long illness In 2020, the household had 44 head of cattle During the January Disease outbreak, NV lost most of her cattle and she is now left with 6 cattle In 2020, her second-born son (born 1972) who was employed as a headmaster at a nearby school committed suicide Meanwhile, her last born son’s economic fortunes has ebbed drastically over time He had been running a business in Harare, supplying stationery to over 10 schools there However, starting from 2020, the business began to collapse In 2022, her first born son (born 1970) who was also a headmaster at a secondary school died after a short illness All these events hit NV’s family very hard She lost her two sons, while her youngest son’s business collapsed – all of whom provided remittances.Accumulation, then decline then improvementThere are others who have followed a similar trajectory to that described above, but with a twist – they have managed to negotiate a successful succession to a next generation A big question for many farmers in our sample – both A1 and A2 is whether kids who they have educated often to very high levels will come back and take over the farm Many such sons and daughters are living way, often abroad, and doing reasonably well in jobs What is the incentive to return Rural homes, especially in our Masvingo sample, are much better equipped than those in the communal areas of old There are multiple bedrooms, solar power and lighting, even internet connections Parents feel it’s an enticement for their children that things are‘like town’.Road connections are better, and cars are plentiful, so it’s not a matter of taking a rural bus and walking for miles But there are still relatively few households that have managed the generational transition successfully In many homes there are beginnings: projects invested in by absent children, often in the diaspora, but not really taking on the whole farm operation The cases below show some examples where children are present and investing even if not full-time resident or are joining parents on subdivided farms and investing in multiple projects Maybe it is too early for others to do this, but very often if both parents have died and the children are not present the most likely scenario is farm abandonment rather than regeneration, so many argue this transfer must happen while both generations are present.Case 4: RM, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagisedRM, a 60-year-old widow, obtained a 4ha A1 plot in the year 2000 Initially, her household had initially settled illegally in a farm in Nemamwa after realising the difficulties of town life, but were removed by the state Her now late husband worked as a mechanic in Bulawayo and later Masvingo In 2003, only three years after settlement, RM’s husband passed away, leaving her with three young children (one boy and two girls) Following the death of her husband, she struggled to gain a foothold in farming During this period, she also fell seriously ill due HIV/AIDS related illnesses She struggled to produce enough surplus to accumulate and educate her children When her oldest son passed his Form 4, a pastor from her AFM church provided financial support that enabled her son to do ‘A’ level Her son later enrolled for a diploma in accounting at Masvingo Polytechnic College Upon completion in 2010, he then found a job at ZIMRA With a good job, the son was then able to invest substantially on the farm with his wages, starting with replacing pole and mud houses with a six-roomed house installed with solar system and flush toilets In 2020, he drilled a borehole and installed a submersible solar pump, jojo tank and irrigation The son is also engaging in horticulture, which RM manages while her son is still at work The son also runs a butchery business in town While things are looking up for RM’s household, she constantly worries about succession She complained that her son and his wife were not bringing their children to the farm frequently and long enough to allow her to pass the knowledge of farming to her grandchildren as she once did to her own children She emphasised the need to encourage children at young age to learn agricultural skills.Case 5: AM, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedAM is now in her early 80s She acquired a plot in Wondedzo extension on her own account in the early 2000s, although her husband helped her to choose a strategic plot with access to water At that time, her husband was working as a bus inspector in Masvingo On acquiring the land, the household cleared a 5ha arable field, moved their large herd to the plot and built a good home Her husband later passed away in 2006, but the household maintained its standing She grew maize, rapoko and groundnuts She regularly sold maize to GMB In 2021, in consultations with her children, she took the decision to return to her communal areas home in nearby Masvingise area due to old age As a family, they then decided to exchange the plot with her sister’s son who had a smaller A1 villagised plot in Stanmore B irrigation plot They approached the District Administrator (DA) so that he could facilitate the process However, the DA was against the idea As she said, “the DA first asked if we were related to the person who we wanted to exchange the land with I told him that he was my sister’s son And, he said, in that case, “this was not right” He asked why I was giving away my own children’s ‘nhaka’ (inheritance) to someone else’s son “Your sister’s son does not share the same blood with your children Instead, he advised us to go back home and think carefully again We returned to the DA several times, but remained the same Seeing that the DA was not going to approve our request, my children (including married daughters) then sat down among themselves and decided that my youngest son (T) should take over the plot as he had not inherited anything from the parents The older son (TB) had inherited the old homestead in communal areas and house in Masvingo town following the death of their father So, it was only fair that the young son also inherits the plot Once they had agreed, the children then secretly built a new homestead within the old stand in the communal areas and comfortably furnished it for their mother “This made me very happy that my children could come up with such a plan If the DA had approved our request, we would have got rid of the plot I am grateful to this day.” Today, her son who is also a successful businessman in Gweru is now the new owner of the plot and is now registered in his name He owns nearly 200 cattle, and is even renting additional grazing land from other farmers It is therefore not surprising that the household retains its success thanks to careful succession planning.Case 6: EC, Wondedzo Extension, A1 self-containedEC and her husband acquired a plot in Wondedzo Extension in 2000 Her husband worked as a mechanic for many years before he retired in 2000 and became a pastor of a Pentecostal church The household invested in housing infrastructure and clearing of 10ha of crop fields At settlement, they had a herd of 8 cattle, which later increased to 35 through natural growth They regularly harvested a lot of maize (up to 30 tonnes in good seasons) and sold to GMB They also engaged in horticulture near Mutirikwi river, and sold their products (leafy vegetables, onions and tomatoes) at KuTrain market They managed to set up a private school (linked to the church) and to educate their children (some up to tertiary level) – all through farming One of her daughters works as a school teacher at the family’s private school, another daughter as a secretary at the same school and the other is self-employed as a cross-border trader At one point, the household had 8 oxen (making two spans of 4 oxen), and hired as many as four permanent workers From 2014 through to 2023, the household also constructed a very large modern house, which is comfortably furnished, using income from cattle and maize sales But in 2021, EC’s husband passed away after a short illness Despite his death, the household has fared well, largely because the daughters are sending remittances back home (often from the school), which is important for paying workers and buying inputs Both of her two sons are at home, farming with her, although the younger son suffers from mental illness Currently, the household owns 16 head of cattle Last season, the household was selected by the local extension officer and received inputs for wheat production under Command Agriculture.Case 7: AS, Wondedzo ExtensionAS is 82 years old He belongs to the Johanne Masowe church He has five wives and over 30 children AS acquired a 35ha plot in 2000 with the help of his son-in-law who was a war veteran and leader of invasions during the time His 9 sons and three wives have all established their own homesteads within the plot All his sons are self-employed – buying and selling goods in town, while engaging in small ‘projects’ at the farm, especially intensive horticulture Each son has access to between one and two hectares of land One of his sons managed to drill a borehole with income from ‘kungwavha-ngwavha’ In 2020, AS’s former employer drilled a borehole for AS, fenced off 1ha with security fence, and installed a jojo tank and irrigation pipes Overall, the farm has become a village operation, with sons and wives pursuing small agricultural ‘projects’ at home, alongside petty trading in nearby Masvingo town.Accumulation from below through expansion of a family labour force focusing on intensive horticultureFamilies following theApostolic church (Johanne Masowe)really perfected the intensive horticulture strategy Starting off very poor and relying on intermittent maize harvests, they soon negotiated access to land near streams and rivers and started deploying family labour (many wives and children) in horticulture, which increasingly became a sophisticated and intensive operation This expanded through investment in dryland areas throughdrilling boreholes and upgrading pumps Today this network of families deploying hundreds of people through family labour is a force to be reckoned with in the regional horticultural market having diversified away from the classic formula of tomatoes and cabbages to a whole array of products.Case 8: EM, Wondedzo, A1 self-containedEM is 45 years old His parents acquired land in the early 2000s But in 2004, his father passed away As the first-born son, EM took over the plot, although his siblings also remained on the plot and established their own homesteads within the plot Today, the plot has become a ‘village within the plot’ as EM and his siblings have established their homesteads and fields There is a total of six homesteads within the farm belonging to the sons, of which most are engaging in horticulture In 2006, EM started irrigating a small area with buckets from a small dam He grew vegetables, which he sold locally and in Masvingo From the proceeds, he was able to purchase a foot water pump In 2010, he then purchased a 5 HP pump for US$220 and irrigation pipes in the following year As a member of the Mapostori sect, he has 31 wives and many children who are all a source of cheap labour He has since invested in a 30 HP pump and has drilled a borehole Today, EM operates one of the largest horticulture enterprises in Wondedzo Extension.Accumulation from outsideMany of those who have been accumulating from below have links to town and off-farm businesses, but this is not such a driving force for investment in the A1 schemes, unlike in the A2 farms that are almost exclusively financed through investment from outside Many of the A2 farms in our Masvingo study areas are cattle ranches, but operating on a far smaller scale than the huge farms that were previously managed by a few white farming families in this area Cattle ranching on a small area is challenging and requires external funding to support supplementary feed, the leasing of grazing land, veterinary expenses and so on Many are not really going concerns and few have grown significantly over the nearly 25 years since establishment.However, there is a new phase of investment in some of our A1 and A2 sites with urban based professionals, some with diaspora connections or recently having retired, coming to invest through leasing or even purchasing land (see earlier blogs on ‘new entrants’) In A1 areas this is happening mostly in self-contained sites where a whole ‘farm’ can be acquired and invested in These areas are like small A2 farms and have a quite different feel to the villagised sites.Case 9: HH, Clare, A1 self-containedHH, a 57-year-old man, worked as a secondary school teacher in Botswana since 2008 When land reform begun in the year 2000, he had no interest in gaining access to land He saw land reform as a political gimmick and had no interest in farming at the time, despite having a solid farming background He explained, “During land reform, I was one of those people who were spending most of their time at the bar drinking alcohol I was not interested You see, interest in farming has something to do with age.” It was “only later in life” that he realised that he needed land “I asked myself that, “what will I do when I retire without land?”, he says This prompted him to look for land, and he managed to obtain a self-contained plot “by chance” The plot belonged to one of the war veterans who was the leader of farm invasions in the early 2000s This war veteran had managed to acquire several plots and registered them in relatives’ names This particular plot was registered in the war veteran’s son’s name When the war veteran passed away, the son sold the plot to HH for USD7000 in 2014 There was no structure and no fence on the farm – “it was just ground”, he said Since acquiring the farm, HH has invested substantially on the farm, including clearing 2ha of arable land, buying livestock, fencing the whole farm, drilling a borehole, installing a submersible pump for USD3000 and building a comfortable rural homestead Funds came mostly from his savings from his job as a teacher Today, he owns a herd of 20 cattle and 11 goats He primarily grows sugar beans and sells at Serima High School where his wife works as an administrator A few years ago, he ventured into horticulture, but the ‘project’ floundered due to difficulties in running a farm while away As he declared, “Farm management by cellphone is very difficult If you are not there, it’s very hard for the project to be a success.”Case 10: CZ, Wondedzo Wares, A1 villagised59-year-old CZ is a retired nurse and his wife works as a school teacher at Wondedzo secondary school The household purchased an A1 plot in 2010 from a land beneficiary (MM) whose father had a self-contained plot Following the death of his father, MMinherited his father’s self-contained plot Hence, he decided to sell his A1 plot to CZ, who at the time was living at the local clinic CZ gave the seller two head of cattle as payment There was only one hut on the plot, although the crop field was cleared Since purchasing the plot, CZ has gradually made significant investments on the farm with savings from his wages alongside bank loans In 2011, the household constructed a three-roomed brick and iron roof house and renovated a round brick and thatch kitchen they found there In 2016, they built another 4-roomed house with a combination of income from maize sales, horticulture, loans and wages In 2011, they also managed to purchase cattle with proceeds from horticulture Their herd later increased to 17 However, all but 4 died due to January disease In 2017, the household bought a grinding mill with a loan, and bought another one in 2020 As civil servants, they had access to relatively low-interest loans from reputable banks such as Agri-Bank In 2018, CZ and his wife took a bank loan and used it to drill a borehole, install solar panels and three submersible pumps costing around USD2800 His children also regularly provide remittances.Accumulation from aboveAs in all our sites there are examples of accumulation from above, particularly in the early period when land was claimed This occurred in the A1 areas when those with connections (often through their war veteran status) were able to claim ‘self-contained’ plots rather than being allocated to villagised areas The same individuals often had close associations with the District Land Committees and were able to influence subsequent land allocations in favour of relatives and others However the amount of subsequent patronage resources that flowed to Masvingo areas has been minimal, and few benefited from the notoriousRBZ Farm Mechanisation Schemein the 2000s andCommand Agriculturein the 2010s There were some A2 farmers in our sample who again were politically well connected but not many, and these connections often did not result in the flow of resources as these were diverted elsewhere Such individuals would often complain to us that despite their status they were not receiving anything and that they were just like everyone else.Decumulation and declineThere are different patterns of decline across our Masvingo sites As noted earlier there is a demographically linked decline in A1 areas as older parents, once energetic surplus maize farmers, are no longer able to achieve such production levels Partly this is because of a changing climate (rice for example, once a staple in the area, has virtually disappeared), but mostly declines are because of ill health, death and lack of family labour or funding to support hiring This decline, as already discussed is in part offset in cases where there is successful generation transition and also through leasing out land to new entrants.Decline in the A2 areas is due to similar factors, but also because A2 farming overall has suffered throughlack of finance and support.A2 farming is a tough business proposition in the Masvingo area and few have really made it without significant subsidies from outside Some have had patronage windfalls, but these have had little overall effect; others are reliant on support from external jobs (paying in US dollars, like in the NGO sector, UN jobs, lawyers etc.) Those with external jobs to drive investment are surviving but probably not on very economic terms as cash is quickly absorbed in loss making concerns The only period when some A2 farms in Masvingo were doing reasonably well was in theGNU periodwhen some semblance of economic stability prevailed for a few years and investment was possible Before and since, business has been extremely difficult in the absence of sustainable farm finance from banks.As a result, a number of A2 farms have been slowly abandoned, leaving few workers or relatives but with little economic activity There are as a result large areas of land being made available for leasing and even purchase This new injection of funds and investment is however slower and less dramatic than in the Mvurwi area where returns are higher and more assured.In some cases, some relatively large A2 farms have been subject to downsizing and subdivisions Most were once allocated to political elites who have since passed away and have been inherited by their widows or children With loss of political clout, their farms have been subject to downsizing amid allegations of ‘under-utilisation’ In our Masvingo-Gutu A2 sample, two farms that were once allocated to two political elites have been downsized following their death For example, SM, a former minister was allocated 1200 ha of land in the early 2000s He passed away in 2016 In 2021, the Lands Office decided to downsize the farm and carved out 12 additional plots that were then allocated to civil servants and a few politically-connected individuals His surviving widow was left with 100ha of land In another A2 farm, a total of 40 plots were created following the death of the original land beneficiary whose father was a political heavyweight in the rural party, with much influence locally.What of the future?As in all our sites, sustaining the trajectory of accumulation from below seen in the early years of land reform has been challenging Some have been successful by changing strategy (from maize to irrigated horticulture) or via deploying considerable labour (as in Apostolic follower families), but others have seen declines in accumulation over time, particularly as the original household heads age or die The question of succession and generational transfer is at the centre of the challenge for the future, and we see some hopeful examples where projects or new commercial investments are led by adult children with resources or by outsider coming as new entrants to invest on lease arrangements An alternative strategy for accumulation was sought through the investments made in the early years, and this involved intensification of production, usually around horticulture Intensification has meant a contraction of ‘outfield’ area and so maize production, and this is important for those who lack energy and labour to plough large dryland areas This is a region of the country where vleis (wetlands) dot the landscape and vegetable growing with supplementary irrigation has become an important focus for many, especially for women but increasingly for men.Investment in boreholes, irrigation pumps, pipesand other infrastructure, together with vehicles for transporting crops, was a critical avenue for spending funds generated by surplus maize These horticultural enterprises were highly reliant on good markets, but entrepreneurial farmers were able to make connections with supermarkets in Masvingo and traders in the ‘train’ market in the town Those in Gutu have more recently suffered the ending of the goods train service to Masvingo and the splitting of theAFM church, which in the past used to hold huge gatherings in Rufaro just outside Chatsworth and so a ready market for vegetable growers and other vendors COVID-19 and restrictions on movement also curtailed the market expansion, but many found ways around lockdown rules as we discussed in our research on the pandemic OurA2 sitesare very different There are some farms that are focused on arable production, a few that are specialised in horticulture, but many, particularly in the Gutu and Chatsworth areas, are livestock focused enterprises, replicating the production system that the former white commercial farms followed prior to land reform, but on much smaller areas These farms have had mixed fortunes, with some successes, but many failures at least in terms of the ‘ideal’ of an independent medium commercial farm sector While some are effectively abandoned with land being held speculatively, others are now leasing out land for rental to others, and others still are attracting in relatives to create village settlements on the farm, essentially with each homestead following a small-scale farming approach As a result, the dynamics of accumulation across our A2 sample is extremely varied, both across farms and across time, as fortunes have varied over the last decades Across our Masvingo A1 and A2 sites, we therefore see a number of different accumulation patterns, with particular gender characteristics These overlap with those in Mvurwi discussed in the last blog but have their distinct characteristics Below we outline a number of these (which overlap or are sequenced), illustrated with cases from our qualitative biographical interviews At this stage, we cannot say for sure what proportion of each strategy existed across our sample households at different points of time This will have to await our survey later this year and the analysis of our longitudinal data across years Clearly, as we have discussed before, accumulation from below dominates, but does this get followed by decline or renewal This depends on a whole array of factors discussed below, all of which are pertinent to thinking about future rural development policies and support strategies Accumulation from below then decline Those arriving in the A1 areas as part of ‘jambanja’ invasions set up base camps in areas that were essentially bush The former farms had very limited cultivated areas, usually near the homestead They started from nothing, but soon were accumulating as big maize producers In the self-contained A1 areas of Clare and Wondedzo Extension, this was often spectacular The villagised schemes also had important accumulators, but in these areas the levels of surplus were smaller Most people however produced more than a tonne of maize in nearly all years, and so were able to invest and accumulate This was very much a ‘big man’ investment pathway and women often focused on their smaller plots – of groundnuts,nyimoand so on – as well as their vegetable gardens In many ways the early years replicated the old ‘hurudza’ story from many decades ago in the communal areas when there was sufficient land and people owned large herds for manure and draft power In the villagised areas, there was more pressure from others to come and settle and, through both official and informal routes, the areas of land available – especially for grazing – shrunk, particularly in the Sanangwe site where about 64 households were resettled by the District Administrator and village heads as they had settled on an ungazetted farm nearby In this respect these areas began to feel much more like the current communal areas, where field sizes are smaller, grazing areas settled in and where there is an increasing focus on different styles of intensive gardening The attenuation of the accumulation from below trajectory happened in different ways In the self-contained areas, there was less pressure on land, but old age and death of usually male land holders resulted in a contraction of production possibilities In the villagised areas, demographic changes were also significant, but fewer animals (due to less grazing, drought and disease) had a big impact too As the cases show, in some instances homes were abandoned as no one was there to take over (often due to family disputes and challenges with succession) or taken over by a widow without the capacities to manage the farm to full, and with only some selective support from now adult children Source: The Zimbabwean All Zim News is a central hub for all things Zimbabwean, curating news from across the country so no story is missed Alongside aggregation, our team of nationwide reporters provides real-time, on-the-ground coverage Stay informed and connected — reach us at admin@allzimnews.com. Source: Thezimbabwean
Image from but challenges of succession ahead in Masvingo province land reform sites Zimbabwe 