From the early days of colonial settlement, commercial farming has depended on the exploitation of cheap labour, including child labour. As a consequence, farm workers and their families have constituted an underclass of the Zimbabwe labour force. According to the 2012 Zimbabwe census, 571,489 people lived on large commercial farms, and another 191,650 lived on small commercial farms. The total as a percentage of the population is 5.9%. The number of children working on commercial farms in Zimbabwe was estimated at 10,000 in 2009.1. At the same time, commercial farming has been a cornerstone of the economy of Zimbabwe. This position has recently been undercut by the introduction of a land reform and seizure programme of commercial farms that was initiated in 2000. The economic well being of families and children was further undercut by the ravaging effects of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Following independence, some efforts were made to protect the interests of children. The General Agricultural Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) was formed shortly after independence in 1982, and formally registered in 1986. One of the goals of the union is ‘to reduce all forms of child labour in the farming community’. 2 Notably, the aim is not to eliminate child labour. The paper discusses the forms that child labour has taken on commercial farms, the problems of definition of child labour, and the deterioration of child welfare in the country.