Agricultural employment expansion: Smallholder land and labour capacity growth

Abstract

This report is based on a synthesis of findings from various publications, ZEDS surveys and numerous Government publications. It is supported by a wide spreading background study report on Zimbabwe's prospects for employment and agricultural development produced with two other colleagues from ZIDS. In four preliminary sections the report first traces the role and contributions of agriculture in the economy and in employment, and then it assesses the performances of the agricultural sub-sector, focusing on large-scale commercial farming (LSCF) and Communal Area farming in order to highlight the differences in employment and growth impacts of these two dominant sub-sectors. In the two following sections the resources and policy framework of sub-sectoral performance are discussed and identifiable investment policy impacts synthesized, with particular attention given to the employment effects of the post-independence agricultural developments. These analyses lead to the conclusion that reasonable growth and some small measure of equity were achieved during the period studied, while declining formal employment, increased underemployment and precarious Communal farm employment were achieved in a situation of growing officially "descaled" unemployment.