Who will make the ‘best’ use of Africa’s land? Lessons from Zimbabwe

Manjengwa, Jeanette; Hanlon, Joseph; Smart, Teresa

doi:10.1080/01436597.2014.907722

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Although food is readily available in supermarkets and informal food markets, many low-income households cannot meet food price increases. Home gardens in Masvingo city are an essential component of the local food systems [37,38].…”

Section: Zimbabwementioning

confidence: 99%

Growing and Eating Food during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Farmers’ Perspectives on Local Food System Resilience to Shocks in Southern Africa and Indonesia

Paganini

Adinata²,

Buthelezi³

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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The COVID-19 outbreak forced governments to make decisions that had adverse effects on local food systems and supply chains. As a result, many small-scale food producers faced difficulties growing, harvesting, and selling their goods. This participatory research examines local small-scale farmers’ challenges as farmers but also as consumers and their coping strategies during the month of April and one week in June 2020. The study was initiated and conceptualized in collaboration with small-scale farmer members of an existing research network in selected urban and rural areas in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Indonesia. Participants co-designed the research, collected and uploaded data through digital survey tools, and contributed to data analysis and interpretation. A common observation across regions is that the measures imposed in response to COVID-19 highlighted and partly exacerbated existing socio-economic inequalities among food system actors. Strict lockdowns in Cape Town, South Africa, and Masvingo, Zimbabwe, significantly restricted the production capacity of small-scale farmers in the informal economy and created more food insecurity for them. In Maputo, Mozambique, and Toraja and Java, Indonesia, local food systems continued to operate and were even strengthened by higher social capital and adaptive capacities.

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Section: Zimbabwementioning

confidence: 99%

Growing and Eating Food during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Farmers’ Perspectives on Local Food System Resilience to Shocks in Southern Africa and Indonesia

Paganini

Adinata²,

Buthelezi³

et al. 2020

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This technical narrative of efficiency, often obfuscates the politics of agriculture and land access in order to frame answers to the question of 'who will make the best use of Africa's land?' (Manjengwa, Hanlon, and Smart 2014).…”

Section: Challenge 1-the Scramble For 'Surplus' Landmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The aim of dominant political regimes of both colonial and post-colonial eras favours full-scale agricultural transformation, meaning the shift of labour from agriculture, and a concentration of land-holdings, through intensification and commercial investment; but this goal has remained elusive across the case study countries. Whereas the share of agriculture in GDP may be declining to variable degrees, small-scale agriculture remains highly significant in the livelihoods of most of the population (Manjengwa, Hanlon, and Smart 2014;Harrison and Mdee 2018). All three countries are experiencing large-scale land acquisition and increasing differentiation of rural wealth (Andersson Djurfeldt and Hillbom 2016;Chinsinga 2017;Chung 2017;Bluwstein et al 2018).…”

Section: Dynamics Of Agriculture In Malawi Zambia and Tanzaniamentioning

confidence: 99%

Neither sustainable nor inclusive: a political economy of agricultural policy and livelihoods in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia

Mdee

Ofori

Chasukwa

et al. 2020

The Journal of Peasant Studies

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The food crisis of 2007/8, alongside rapid population growth, and the uncertainties of climate change propelled African agricultural transformation back into the development mainstream. New narratives of 'climate-smart agriculture' and 'sustainable intensification' underlie this contemporary transformation. We present a political economy analysis of agricultural policy and livelihoods in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, and use this to assess the challenge of achieving 'sustainable and inclusive intensification'. We find little evidence that agricultural institutions have the capacity to deliver sustainable intensification in agriculture, or that agricultural policy drives changes in agricultural livelihoods that will make them either more sustainable or inclusive.

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“…Certainly, size matters when it comes to some justifications for large-scale land appropriations on the basis of ‘unproductive’ smallholder agriculture (Peters 2013). As Manjengwa et al (2014) suggest, this centres on the fundamental question of ‘Who will make the best use of Africa's land?’ Will it be large-scale capital as supported by President Obama and the G8's New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, or smallholder agriculture, as promoted by Kofi Annan's Africa Progress Panel? On the one hand there are those who argue strongly for support to smallholders, for example through subsidies, albeit with caveats about their constraints and capabilities.…”

Section: Smallness In African Agriculture and Irrigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size isn't everything: narratives of scale and viability in a Tanzanian irrigation scheme

Harrison¹,

Mdee

2017

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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This paper explores tensions over scale and viability in irrigated agricultural development in Tanzania. A revival of ambition to transform African agriculture has reawakened debate over what type of agriculture can best deliver increased production and poverty reduction for rural populations. This paper examines these debates through the lens of an ethnographic study of an irrigated rice farm in Tanzania. With a chequered history of state and donor intervention management, Dakawa, Rice Farm in Mvomero District is now collectively farmed by a co-operative society of 'small farmers'. It is widely hailed as a success, both of irrigation production, and of 'small farmers' in delivering this However, such narratives of smallness and success obscure a more complex reality in which smallness of scale may be more of a discursive tool than a reflection of empirical reality.. Although notions of 'viability' and 'success' in such development interventions are themselves also contested and depend on perspective, there is evidence that there are fundamental problems of both short and long term viability.

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Who will make the ‘best’ use of Africa’s land? Lessons from Zimbabwe

Cited by 14 publications

References 18 publications

Growing and Eating Food during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Farmers’ Perspectives on Local Food System Resilience to Shocks in Southern Africa and Indonesia

Growing and Eating Food during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Farmers’ Perspectives on Local Food System Resilience to Shocks in Southern Africa and Indonesia

Neither sustainable nor inclusive: a political economy of agricultural policy and livelihoods in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia

Size isn't everything: narratives of scale and viability in a Tanzanian irrigation scheme

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