Medium-scale commercial agriculture and its role in structural transformation, wealth creation and enhanced livelihoods in an African context: Evidence from contemporary Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper investigates the extent to which Zimbabwe’s emergent medium-scale commercial farms have the potential to contribute to structural transformation, wealth creation and enhanced livelihoods. It presents field based empirical evidence drawn from two rural districts and it utilises the interpretive research paradigm, a mixed methods research approach and the political economy approach as its conceptual and evaluative tool. It shows that in recent years in the Zimbabwean and wider African context, there has been witnessed the re-emergence of medium-scale farms in response to agricultural policy reforms. In contemporary Zimbabwe, neo-liberal orthodoxy in policy making, the emergence of a reconfigured agrarian structure; State emphasis on agricultural commercialisation, profit maximisation, accumulation, and the view that the agrarian sector is catalytic for socio-economic transformation have added impetus and shaped the character of medium-scale farms. The paper shows that the farms are playing important roles in production and social reproduction, and this is implicating in different ways on income generation, commercialisation trajectories, investment and capital accumulation in the countryside. Cumulatively, the evidence suggests that medium-scale farms are contributing to agricultural value chains, industrialisation, employment creation, wealth creation and enhanced rural livelihoods. These are integral in shaping the country’s agrarian vision and futures. Important lessons are that when compared with small-holder farms, medium-scale farms have greater potential to create a land-based context which is transformative, inclusive, egalitarian and empowers citizens. For the wider African context, the paper posits that medium-scale farms are increasingly becoming critical and can potentially contribute to resolving the persistent challenges of poverty, disenfranchisement, marginalisation and inequality.

Keywords

• Livelihoods
• medium-scale farms
• production
• social reproduction
• structural transformation
• wealth creation