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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Survival or Growth? Temporal Dimensions of Rural Livelihoods in Risky Environments
Author:Kinsey, Bill H.ISNI
Year:2002
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:28
Issue:3
Period:September
Pages:615-629
Language:English
Geographic term:Zimbabwe
Subjects:settlement schemes
land reform
household budget
household income
rural households
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Development and Technology
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Politics and Government
Economics and Trade
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/823434
Abstract:In 1980, Zimbabwe initiated a land reform programme intended to improve the welfare of the poor and the landless. Beneficiaries overwhelmingly came from the overcrowded communal areas, where successive rounds of discriminatory legislation had pushed them. Additionally, for more than a decade, resettlement planning 'models' called for them to utilize the land resource made available to earn their livelihoods exclusively from farming. This paper examines the ways in which the livelihoods of resettled households have evolved in response to the opportunities created by access to additional productive land. The analysis looks both at livelihood trajectories and outcomes in the resettlement areas and at selected contrasts between the communities of origin and the new communities. Recurring drought appears to lead to predictable patterns in the ebb and flow of certain rural economic activities. Policy shifts since 1990 - principally those under structural adjustment and an alteration to the regulation requiring household heads to reside locally - have, in contrast, had mixed outcomes in the relatively land-abundant resettlement areas in Zimbabwe. While men have largely retained a commitment to small-scale commercial farming, there has been a striking proliferation of non-farm income-earning activities, a very large proportion of which are carried out by women. Notes, ref., sum. (Journal abstract)
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