The Impact Of Farmer-Led Irrigation On Zimbabwe’s Model A1 Land Reform: A Review

Abstract

- This article acknowledges that land reform is critical in the development and transformation of economies especially in Sub Saharan Africa. (SSA). Land reform is a planned purposive change in the way land tenure is held or owned. It also includes the methods of cultivation that are employed and in a way, defines the relation of agriculture to the rest of the economy. Like most economies in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), agriculture in Zimbabwe plays an important role in the country’s economy and also on the livelihoods of the rural populace whose quest for food security and nutrition, income and expansion of their rural economies is embedded in agriculture. This is clearly spelt out in the economic blue print, National Development Strategy One (NDS1) where agriculture forms the important enabler for the country’s transformation by the Second Republic of Zimbabwe. The skewed nature of land distribution at independence that was in favour of a few white commercial farmers triggered the onset of the Fast-track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in 2000. This programme was implemented under two models namely the A1 and A2 Model. The A1 Model is the smallholder variant where the beneficiaries were allocated 3 to 6 hectares purely reserved for arable purposes while the A2 Model is the commercial model where the land sizes vary from 30 to 2000 hectares and is dependent on the agro-ecological region