Grain marketing by communal farmers in Zimbabwe: preliminary results from Mutoko, Mudzi and Buhera districts

Approximately 60% of Zimbabwe’s total land area and 40% of communal households are in marginal areas in Natural Regions IV and V. Because these areas have poor soil and low and erratic rainfall (averaging 600 mm annually), crop production is a risky undertaking. Since independence in 1980, the government has sought to both increase the incomes of communal farmers and improve household food security in these areas Zimbabwe, 1983) by encouraging farmers to increase their production and marketing of small grains (sorghum and the millets) and oilseeds (groundnut and sunflower). Several specific policies have been instituted to elicit increased production and marketing of small grains.

A conference paper on grain marketing by rural farmers in Zimbabwe.