Zimbabwe -  Henry's story

My background is in tropical agricuture / land use.   Started farming aged five, got my BSc, MSc, etc... straight through into development agricuture.   I actually landed up as a 'farm systems analyst'.   Since then I've gone more and more in the direction of land tenure, land rights, access to law, policy and governance.

I've been working in Zimbabwean communal lands on and off since 1984  -   the days of Comrade Mugabe mixing with fresh echoes of the Matabeleland massacres.    It was almost hopeful then.   Last year I had a good long look at the Humana website and in particular at the new headquarters on a ranch outside Harare.

My take on that setup was that they had very cleverly played into the political aspirations of ZANU-PF.    What ADPP had done was buy (I think) a ranch suitably close to Harare, and remove the old colonial homestead and build themselves a new corporate headquarters (blue paint!) which looks like quite interesting and innovative architecture.

The road in / out of the site is flanked by open pasture with some expensive fencing which is a game reserve.    I recall this little piece of theme park Africa was touted as 'integrated wildlife ranching'.    Not. The rest of the farm was broken up into 10 hectare plots onto which were 'resettled' Zimbabwean farmers.   Ten hectares is about five to ten times the average plot size for a subsistence farm in the communal lands. The plots were described as sustainable small-scale commercial farming.

The size of the land holdings told me all I need to know:    Ten hectares cannot be weeded or tended by hand by one family unit (one family = seven people including child labour), thus some access to mechanisation is required. The surplus that ten hectares can produce is marginal to process by hand - and marginal to take into market. You need access to relatively cheap transport.

As described in many authoritative academic papers, these critical resources are two areas where the various post-independence resettlement schemes fell down. I called a friend in Harare who works for Agritex - the government agricultural extension service.   He knew the farm.  Of course ADPP provided both tractor ploughing services at cost on a communal basis and a light truck to take produce to Harare. Tractors, trucks, water supply, seed supply, fertiliser, fertiliser storage, school and clinic are all effectively controlled by European staff.

Now look at the farm this way (and this is pure hypothesis): suppose a ZANU-PF acolyte wants to impress a visiting Minister of the potential of simple land-restribution, he can drive the man out to the farm, and see the animals, see the farms and see it all working... No big farmhouse, a handful of foreigners / Europeans working alongside local Zimbabweans. It could look pretty convincing. How convenient for Mugabe's men to have access to a scene like that.......