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Report on Assessment of the Impact of Land Reform Programme
on Commercial Farm Worker Livelihoods
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| 3. Background |
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According to the 1992 census 1.2 million people live on large-scale commercial farms, representing 11.3 percent of the total Zimbabwean population. The total number of permanent farm workers on all farms was estimated to be in the range of 290,000 to 461,000.
Another survey by FEWS/FCTZ in 1997/98 found that the overall number of permanent male farm workers maintaining a communal home to be 40.5 percent. This ranges from approximately 30 percent in Mashonaland Central, West and East, to 80 percent in Masvingo and the Midlands. The numbers were slightly reduced when including all permanent farm workers.
3.1 Ethnicity
The issue of nationality is very important in determining the possible impact of land reform on farm workers, Zimbabwean farm-workers forming a multi-ethnic community.
Several studies and reports have produced different figures on the composition of farm worker population in terms of origin. The 1998 FEWS / CFU / FCTZ survey reported that, a substantial proportion of farm workers, approximately 25 percent, traced their origins to Zambia and Malawi.
Most farm worker families have been present on the farms since the early 1940s, and most of the current farm workers (92 percent) have hence been born in Zimbabwe regarding themselves as Zimbabweans. Many farm workers of ‘foreign origin’ possess identity cards (85 percent in one survey) and birth certificates. Many also have residence permits. However, farm workers of foreign origin have no access or rights to agricultural land, and in addition, unless through marriage, are unlikely to have links to the communal areas. Although often labelled as ‘foreign’ or ‘alien’ hardly any of the farm workers have a base in neighbouring countries.
3.2 Land Reform Process
During the immediate post independence period although farm workers were not considered as a specific category in the resettlement program, they fell into the broad category of “poor and landless” who were the main targets of the initial program. A number of farm workers managed to resettle themselves on abandoned farms and state land in different parts of the country, and were officially recognised as resettlement farmers ex post at independence.
However, a shift in land policy in the mid 1980s towards more “efficient” and “productive” farmers resulted in a negative official policy towards farm workers, who became characterised as foreigners, as unproductive and ‘persona non grata’ on resettlement farms.
It was only in the 1990s when government was reformulating the land policy, that due to the advocacy efforts by the farm workers union, NGOs and academics, that farm workers came to be accepted as a category to be resettled. This resulted in the incorporation into the draft Land Policy Document of 1999, of issues related to the land rights by farm workers, both in terms of residential rights and rights to resettlement under the land reform program.
However with the introduction of the fast track resettlement program in July 2000 the land needs of farm worker communities would seem to have been ignored.
3.3 Farm Worker Vulnerability
Farm workers’ livelihoods are inextricably linked with the fate of the farm on which they live and work, and hence are extremely vulnerable to the recent changes brought about by recent political changes and the land reform process. Previously almost all of farm workers’ food and cash income was derived from activities on the farm. Their homes are on the farms; and they are paid, in the majority of cases, relatively low wage or get subsidised s prices for foodstuffs from the farm store. Some farm workers have also been assisted with access to health and education services.
3.4 Geographical Vulnerability
Analysis of farm worker vulnerability has focused on those areas most likely to be affected by the fast track resettlement programme. Analysis was based on a consideration of those farms Gazetted for acquisition by the GOZ by March 2002.
Analysis of this information indicated that the area most likely to be affected by farm worker displacement was the Mashonaland Region where over 3 000 farms had been earmarked for acquisition.
The impact of the fast track resettlement scheme was predicted to be greater in the Mashonaland region, both due to the high concentration of permanent farm workers living in the region and the low percentage of farm workers maintaining a home in the communal areas.
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