no abstract available / Development Studies / MA (DEVELOPMENT STUD)

Social relations are valued by many in rural settings as they provide strong sources of social support among rural households. Barr (2004) and Dekker (2004a) indicate that such strong social relations exist mainly in small villages where kin and family members stay close to each other. They both highlight the importance of kin networks for most rural families to strengthen their social capital and resource-pooling strategies. Through strong and reliable social networks, people can work together for a common good and improve their well-being. It is therefore important for rural households to live close by their kin and friends so that they can pool resources and help each other in times of need. However, following land reform in Zimbabwe, many people left their communal homes and moved to the resettlement areas. These movements impacted on family structures, social networks as well as the livelihood strategies that were established in the communal areas over the years. This study investigates how the movement to resettlement areas has affected the day-to-day lives of the resettled families. This question is explored through a case study of resettled households at Dellos farm, in the Felixburg resettlement area in Zimbabwe. Given that their existing social networks were disrupted with the resettlement at Dellos farm, households established new social networks which they now rely on in their daily lives. Although these new networks are not based on kinship, which is regarded as a strong source of social support, they have proven to have great influence on people’s livelihoods at the farm. Regardless of the limited support households received from the government and other institutions, their social networks allowed them to improve their livelihoods and in turn improve their social and economic status. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

no abstract available / Development Studies / MA (DEVELOPMENT STUD)

Land reform has been going on in Zimbabwe since the state attained independence from Britain in 1980 as a way of enhancing agrarian livelihoods for the formerly marginalized people. This study argues that, the Land Reform Programme in Southern Matabeleland rather than enhancing agrarian livelihoods, well established livelihoods have actually been drastically reduced. This has been exacerbated by the state programme of land re-distribution that prescribes a „one size fits all‟ model. Yet this is contrary to the thinking in development discourse that equitable land distribution increases rural livelihoods. As a way of gathering data this study utilized ethnography and case study methodologies. I spent two years interacting and interviewing purposively selected new resettles, communal residents, migrant workers and gold panners in this region. Results from this study confirm that, land reform has greatly reduced livelihoods, particularly agrarian livelihoods. Also, this research has found out that, the majority of residents now depend on off-farm livelihoods such as gold panning and migration to neighbouring South Africa. This thesis therefore concludes that, despite a massive expropriation of former commercial farms, people of Southern Matabeleland have not benefitted much as the village settlements (A1) and the small size farms (A2) have not received support from this live-stocking community. People in this region pin their hopes on livestock rearing to sustain their livelihoods and this study therefore recommends that, any agrarian transformation programmes should address the issues that promote livestock rearing

The land reform that has unfolded in Zimbabwe since 1980 used different models and had diverse consequences. Since the implementation of the fast tract land reform programme in 2000, Zimbabwe experienced heavy reduction in yield and output at farm level that led to a 70% shortfall in production to meet annual food requirements (Richardson, 2005). The economic crisis in Zimbabwe has been characterized by worsening food insecurity especially in the rural areas where harvests continue to be poor. In the beef sector, Zimbabwe has failed to meet its export quota to the EU. The shortfall in production to meet annual food requirements shows a very grim situation but do not tell us about the performance of resettled farmers who now occupy much of the productive land. The broad objective of the study was to determine and compare the production efficiency of resettled farmers in Zimbabwe across land reform models. In addition, the study determined land use intensity. The study was conducted in the Mashonaland Central Province of Zimbabwe mainly because a wide variety of field crops were grown by resettled farmers. The respondents were stratified into three groups. These were: beneficiaries of land reform before 2000 (resettle scheme), fast track A1 model and fast track A2 model. The three models differ on how they were implemented and supported and this might result in different efficiencies of the models. A total of 245 copies structured questionnaire were administered on the resettled farmers from June to September 2010. Descriptive statistics was applied to the basic characteristics of the sampled households. The effect of model of land reform, gender of the household head, marital status, age of the household head, education, household size, religion, dependence ratio, whether the farmer was fulltime or part-time in farming, experience of the farmers in farming at that environment, total land size owned by the farmers and soil type on revenue per hectare and land use rate were determined using the GLM procedure of SAS (2003). Significance differences between least-square group means were compared using the PDIFF test of SAS (2003). The relationship between Revenue and land utilization was examined using the Pearson‟s correlations analysis. Dependance between response variables that had an effect on either revenue per hectare or land utilization with all the other response variables was tested using the Chi-square test for dependance. To find the effect of arable land used and herd size on revenue per hectare and land use the RSREG Procedure of SAS (2003) was used. Input oriented DEA model under the assumption of constant return to scale was used to estimate efficiency in this study. To identify factors that influence efficiency, a Tobit model censored at zero was selected. The mean land use rate varied significantly (p<0.05) with the land reform model with A2 having highest land use rate of 67%. The A1 and old resettlement households had land use rates of 53% and 46%, respectively. Sex, marital status, age of the household head, education and household size significantly affected land use (P<0.05). Revenue per hectare was not affected by any the factors that were inputted in the model. Results from the DEA approach showed that A2 farmers (large land owners) had an average technical efficiency score of 0.839, while the lowest ranking model (A1) had an average score of 0.618. Small land holders (A1 and the old resettled farmers) are on average less cost-efficient than large land owners, with a score of 0.29 for the former compared with 0.45 for the latter. From the factors that were entered in the Tobit model, age of household head, excellent production knowledge and farmer status affected technical efficiency whereas allocative efficiency was only affected by good production knowledge, farm size, arable land owned and area under cultivation. Factors which affected economic efficiency of the resettled farmers are secondary education, household size, farm size, cultivated area and arable land owned. None of the included socio-economic variables has significant effects on the allocative and economic efficiency of the resettled farmers. Thus, the allocative and economic inefficiencies of the farmers might be accounted for by other natural and environmental factors which were not captured in the model.

At independence and in the post-colonial era most countries embarked on a series of land reform, land redistribution and land restitution with some adopting the land tenure system. This study sought to assess the environmental impacts associated with the land reform in resettlement wards of Matobo District in Zimbabwe. The study adopted both social impact assessment approaches and the environmental assessments. The findings revealed farreaching repercussions resulting from activities associated with land reform in Matobo District which altered the physical landscape. The program is accompanied by inter alia excessive poaching, unsustainable agricultural practises, reduced farm production and ecosystem degradation. Therefore, urgent sustainable measures are recommended to be implemented from this study in order to avoid further environmental damage. / Environmental Management / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)

This study examines the role of livelihood diversification in promoting household food security with particular reference to Hurungwe District in Zimbabwe. This focuses on assessing the contribution and impact of predominant livelihood diversification strategies in study area. The study employed qualitative methods of research entailing focus group discussions, observation, key informant interviews and literature review as methods of data collection. The study revealed that limited access to credit, skills development, markets and transport infrastructure weaken the efficacy of nonfarm livelihoods to improve food security. Key recommendations are that government, NGOs and communities must work in tandem to increase livelihood options for food insecure communities. Suggested strategies include increasing access to micro finance, vocational skills training and other support services paying attention to gender considerations. Areas requiring further investigation which emanated from the study include the impact of the shift to tobacco farming and how biotechnology has affected smallholder farmers. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

This study examines the role of livelihood diversification in promoting household food security with particular reference to Hurungwe District in Zimbabwe. This focuses on assessing the contribution and impact of predominant livelihood diversification strategies in study area. The study employed qualitative methods of research entailing focus group discussions, observation, key informant interviews and literature review as methods of data collection. The study revealed that limited access to credit, skills development, markets and transport infrastructure weaken the efficacy of nonfarm livelihoods to improve food security. Key recommendations are that government, NGOs and communities must work in tandem to increase livelihood options for food insecure communities. Suggested strategies include increasing access to micro finance, vocational skills training and other support services paying attention to gender considerations. Areas requiring further investigation which emanated from the study include the impact of the shift to tobacco farming and how biotechnology has affected smallholder farmers. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)