Who Will Make the'Best'Use of Africa's Land? Lessons from Zimbabwe

Type Journal Article - Third World Quarterly
Title Who Will Make the'Best'Use of Africa's Land? Lessons from Zimbabwe
Author(s)
Volume 35
Issue 6
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
URL http://oro.open.ac.uk/39948/1/Manjengwa_Hanlon_Smart_land_Zimbabwe_3WQ.pdf
Abstract
Conflict over African land – between small holders and large industrial farmers and between domestic farmers and global agribusinesses – raises key questions about who will make the best use of African land and which farmers do most to decrease poverty and produce more food, industrial inputs, and exports. Zimbabwe has already gone through two major changes in land occupation, and thus provides an important test of what is the 'best' use of the land. Three measures of 'best' use have been cited in Zimbabwe: reward for military victory, poverty reduction, and agricultural production. Initial evidence indicates that commercial small holder production is a better use of the land than larger, more mechanised farming.

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