A Review Of Land Reallocation In Zimbabwe (1980-2000)

Agriculture is the mainstay of the Zimbabwean economy and land is the key resource in agricultural production. During the colonial era in Zimbabwe, land was distributed along racial lines, approximately 4660 large scale commercial farms mainly white owned occupy 11.2 million ha and about 6 million black smallholder farmers occupy 16.4 million ha in mainly low agricultural potential areas (UNDP, 1998). Resolving the land issue is arguably one of the greatest challenges that face the Mugabe government. Since independence, the government has been undertaking programmes to reallocate land mainly from the white large-scale commercial fanners to the black smallholder fanners to address the inequities of the past. The objective of this paper is to review the progress to date. The paper begins with a description of land distribution over time and move on to review the land acquired and reallocated by the government since 1980. It also reviews the legislative and institutional framework and government financing of the land redistribution and resettlement programmes