Restructuring of agrarian labour relations after Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe

“…that this is a conservative orientation towards implicitly defending the poorly remunerated wage labour in the former LSCF. Displacement of former farm workers addresses two groups: those physically displaced from LSCF compounds and those ‘displaced in situ’ (Hartnack 2007, Magaramombe 2010).”

“Those few larger-scale farmers using motorised traction include both high and low intensity labour hirers, while the majority hire little labour and are poorly capitalised (see Chambati 2011).”

“The simple narrative that workers were displaced (often in situ) and that they remain unemployed is not supported by the evidence (Chambati, 2011).”

“…reform was redistributive although underpinned by class, gender and ethno-regionalism (Hammar, Raftopoulos and Jensen 2003; Moyo and Yeros 2005, 2007; Moyo et al. 2009; Scoones et al. 2010; Chambati 2011; Moyo 2011a, 2011b; Hanlon, Manjengwa and Smart 2012; Matondi 2012; Mkodzongi 2013a, 2013b).”

“By the late 1990s, there were estimated to be around 150,000 permanent workers on commercial farms, including estates,4 and the commercial agricultural sector employed around 200,000 additional workers on temporary contracts (Chambati, 2007, 2011; Scoones et al., 2010: 127).”

“In general, the public land tenures offered to the new landowners do not enable them to totally enforce the residential labour tenancy (Chambati, 2011; Moyo, 2011a) and thus sometimes face stiff resistance from the farm labourers.”

“This investment and accumulation has benefited others, including workers employed by the new farm owners, while displacing others (Chambati 2011; Scoones et al. 2018b); relatives who have come to live in the new farms (Scoones et al.”

“In a similar vein, Chambati (2011) discerned that new and diverse sources of rural employment have emerged, including high levels of self-employment on small farms, albeit supplemented by casual employment.”

“The food shortages resulted in some households engaging in under-consumption, thereby subsidizing the LSCF costs (Chambati 2011).”

“They hire large amounts of permanent and seasonal labour (Chambati 2011) and rely on an increasing number of outgrowers under contract farming (Moyo 2011b).”

“…early insights have been added to substantially extending the geographic scope, deepening the focal areas and on occasions challenging some of the findings (e.g., Murisa, 2011; Chambati, 2011; Chigumira, 2014; Chiweshe, 2014; Mkodzongi, 2013; Mutopo, 2011; Zamchiya, 2011, 2013; among many others).”

“Our study shows how access to land and increased opportunities to diversify into offfarm activities now undergirds farmworker social differentiation (cf. Chambati 2011, 2013; Scoones et al. 2018a).”

“…as suppliers of wage labour to the new farms.6 The perceived political allegiance of farm workers to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and white farmers (who are viewed as anti-land reform) was also considered as a justification for their exclusion in land allocation (see Chambati 2011a).”

“Other authors (e.g., Chambati 2011; Scoones et al. 2017), however, have found former workers who feel liberated by the replacement of white commercial farmers with a rural order in which they can make an independent living.”

“According to Chambati (2011), farm labour constituted 26% of the wage labour force by 1999.”

“…in the resettlement areas came from diverse social backgrounds, they have over the years come together to form social networks such as producer organizations, burial societies, cooperatives, and other groupings to pull agrarian labor collectively (see Chambati, 2011; Moyoet al.,2009; Murisa, 2013).”

“Empirical evidence on the ground (AIAS Survey, 2014; Chambati, 2011; Chambati & Magaramombe, 2008) suggests that farmworkers were active participants in the politics of land rather than mere victims, and that, in some places, such as the Damvuri Conservancy, former farmworkers benefited from the land reform and have b…”

“Post-FTLRP, the texture of agrarian labour in resettlement areas has evolved and exhibits more nuanced labour arrangements than before (Chambati, 2011, 2017; Marewo, 2020, 2022).”

“The broaden - ing of the peasant base as a result of the FTLRP increased the number of peasant households that are now self-employed and engage in maize production (Binswanger-Mkhize & Moyo, 2022; Chambati, 2011).”

“In the TMAS, land size also determines the class of farmers (Chambati, 2011; Moyo, 2016; Moyo & Yeros, 2005).”

“It is important to note that the composition of former farm workers is not a homogeneous group; it includes permanent workers who resided on the farms and casual and seasonal workers mostly from nearby farms and communal areas (Chambati, 2011; Moyo, 2009).”

“That few former farm workers benefited from the FTLRP land allocations indicates their limited prioritisation as a category of beneficiaries targeted to receive land, since they were earmarked to continue their role as wage labourers (Chambati 2011; Scoones et al. 2018).”

“These traits have been shown to characterise poor peasant households in studies that have been undertaken post-FTLRP (see Chambati 2017, 2011; Mazwi, Muchetu, and Mudimu 2021; Moyo et al. 2009).”

“…analysed through the lens of ethnic-nationalism (Rutherford 2008, 2011; Sachikonye 2003, 2005; Moyo 2011; Moyo, Rutherford, and Amanor-Wilks 2000; Chaumba, Scoones, and Wolmer 2003; Moyo and Yeros 2005; Scoones et al. 2010; Chambati 2011, 2013; Hanlon, Manjengwa, and Smart 2012; Mkodzongi 2013).”

“POLÍTICA EDITORIAL E CONTROVÉRSIA CIENTÍFICA EM ESTUDOS AGRÁRIOS10 A retomada do debate ocorreu no JPS, em 2011, com um número especial sobre os resultados da nova política de redistribuição de terras do Zimbábue, a Fast Track Land Reform Program – FTLRP.14 As duas posições na controvérsia foram retomadas em artigos q…”

“In contexts of poverty and marginalization, livelihood diversification often reflects desperation rather than opportunity, as households patch together minimal income from multiple precarious sources (Chambati, 2011).”

“23 However, these studies provide limited in-depth analysis of linkages between beneficiaries of the FTLRP in resettled areas and people in communal areas of origin using a framework of belonging.”