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Zimbabwe’s Agrarian livelihoods have drastically changed within the last decade due to the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme (FTLPR) that saw massive transfer of land from white commercial farmers to black farmers. The agricultural revolution led to re-peasantization processes coming back on the national agenda, with women participating in the process of land acquisition and investing in farming activities. In this article, we discuss the role that women have been playing in the new agricultural sphere in Zimbabwe, in light of land acquisition modes, the crops that are grown and the different entrepreneurial activities undertaken by women. The article demonstrates how re-peasantization processes have led to the recognition of land as a central resource shaping rural livelihoods, especially for women, in terms of contributing to the national and household food baskets.

Conflict over African land -between small holders and large industrial farmers and between domestic farmers and global agribusinesses -raises key questions about who will make the best use of African land and which farmers do most to decrease poverty and produce more food, industrial inputs, and exports. Zimbabwe has already gone through two major changes in land occupation, and thus provides an important test of what is the 'best' use of the land. Three measures of 'best' use have been cited in Zimbabwe: reward for military victory, poverty reduction, and agricultural production. Initial evidence indicates that commercial small holder production is a better use of the land than larger, more mechanised farming.

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