How much did the expropriation of commercial farms matter to food insecurity in Zimbabwe?

African Affairs

Volumn 106, Issue 425, 2007, Pages 691-696

  Richardson, Craig J ^a,b  

^a Salem College   (United States)

^b Amer Inst for Economic Research   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMMERCIALIZATION; FARM; FOOD SECURITY;

AFRICA; SOUTHERN AFRICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; ZIMBABWE;

EID: 36249004834     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: 14682621     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adm063     Document Type: Article

References (17)

1. Andersson uses the term 'smallholder sector', which technically refers to both communal and small-scale commercial farmers. In Zimbabwe the vast majority in this sector are communal farmers, with no title to the land. Small-scale commercial farmers can hold title, which is an important distinction. I prefer the term communal because it does not mix up an important aspect of this debate, which is that when people do not own the land, there are vastly different implications for agricultural productivity and long-term care and investment in the land.
2. Andersson, p. 1.
3. Andersson (p. 2) calls maize the country's 'main crop' without explaining what 'main' means. Although it serves as the country's staple food, maize's share of total agricultural revenue from 1992-2003 averaged only 5.7 percent, hardly a driving force in Zimbabwe's cash economy. Tobacco, for example, generated between four and twelve times as much income during this time. In addition, the agricultural sector only directly makes up 18 percent of GDP. Zimbabwe's manufacturing base derives 60 percent of its value from the agricultural sector, which explains the historically tight connection with rainfall and GDP. Even if smallholder maize production were counted, it would only make up roughly 3 percent of GDP. Andersson is apparently unaware of these important distinctions between production and economic value and thus vastly oversimplifies the workings of Zimbabwe's rich and diversified economy. Calculations were made using data from the Commercial Farmers Union.
4. Craig Richardson, The Collapse of Zimbabwe in the Wake of the 2000-2003 Land Reforms (Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, 2004), p. 65.
5. Reuters Africa, see Table 1 in this paper.
6. These figures are calculated from Table 1 in this paper.
7. Andersson, p. 1
8. Blair Rutherford 'The forgotten fifth: Farm workers in Zimbabwe', Southern Africa Report 9, 4 (1994) .
9. Calculated using data supplied by the Commercial Farmers Union, Zimbabwe.
10. IMF, 'Zimbabwe: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix' (International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC, 2005), pp. 11, 12 .
11. Ibid., p. 13.
12. Zimonline. 'Zimbabwe: Mugabe tells new black farmers to shape up or ship out' .
13. Andersson, p. 2.
14. FAO, 'Special Report -Zimbabwe' (Rome, Food and Agricultural Organization, 2005), appendix, p. 3 .
15. E. G. Mupunga and D. M. J. Dube, 'Smallholder dairy development programme in resettled and communal areas in Zimbabwe' (Food and Agricultural Organization, Rome, 1993) .
16. Andersson, pp. 1, 8.
17. Cited in IMF, 'Selected issues and statistical appendix,' p. 15.