Rural poverty: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

In the 1990 income and expenditure surveys, the Central Statistics Office estimated that 40 per cent of Zimbabwe’s population (4.2 million people) were poor and 17 per cent were very poor (CSO, 1990). By the mid-1990s a comparable survey estimated that 63 per cent of Zimbabwe’s population were poor and 35 per cent were very poor (CSO, 1995; PASS, 1995). Whilst there is some debate on the absolute levels of poverty (discussed below), most observers agree that poverty increased in the early 1990s. From 2000, the stagnation in the overall growth of the economy indicates a continuing deterioration in the levels of poverty. Poverty in Zimbabwe is primarily a rural phenomenon although urban and peri-urban poverty have grown since the 1990s. Reducing poverty therefore means giving high priority to rural development and sustainable natural resource management. As a key sector in determining overall economic performance, agriculture has the potential to make a significant contribution to poverty reduction. However, despite some well-known success stories, in practice the agricultural sector has not yet made a significant, sustained contribution to improving household security in rural areas (Poulton et al, 2002). Although still of central importance, agriculture and natural resource based activities are increasingly unable to provide sufficient means of survival in rural areas (Ellis, 1999)