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The Impact of Land Reform on Commercial Farm Workers' Livelihoods
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1. BACKGROUND
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Commercial farm worker communities have been estimated by the Central Statistical Office and FEWS to constitute approximately two million people, i.e. approximately 20% of the Zimbabwe's total population. The farm worker communities constitute one of the most impoverished and vulnerable groups in Zimbabwe, with limited access to food security; primary or secondary education; health services; decent shelter; water and sanitation facilities and political representation. In terms of tenure security they also have very limited access to the land from which to supplement farm livelihood earnings.
A central issue at present in Zimbabwe at the moment is the land issue. While the benefits of land reform in terms of a more equitable distribution of land and an easing on pressures on communal areas have been discussed at length, relatively little attention has been paid to the impact of land reform on those who have been working and living on the commercial farms.
Until recently government policy with regards to farm workers has tended not to consider the issue of tenure security for farm workers. It was assumed that the main concerns of farm workers were better working conditions and wages. In addition it was assumed by some that the majority of farm workers were "aliens" and could therefore be return to their countries of origin at any time. While it is true that working conditions and wages need to be improved, the question of tenure security is also critical. It is also true that a sizeable number of farm workers might have their roots of origin in the neighboring countries, but the majority of them are now third or fourth generation Zimbabweans who were born on the farms and now have no real links with other countries.
FCTZ (2001) have estimated that in the period from July to September 2000, resettlement occurred on 45 farms in Mashonaland East, Central and West. Out of the 1,370 farm workers who had been employed on those farms, 137 of them or 10% were included in the resettlement. 1,192 other families were also resettled on the land, indicating that a slightly greater number of people lost their jobs than were resettled. By February 2001, 347 out of the 3,812 commercial farms in the three Mashonaland provinces had already been resettled (or "fast-tracked"), while an additional 738 have been designated for acquisition by the government ("gazetted"). Based on average farm worker populations in those areas (FCTZ, 1999), therefore, an estimated 43,400 farm worker households - roughly 250,000 people - are being affected by the "Fast Track" resettlement programme. Comparable figures for other provinces have not been systematically compiled.
Limited information has been gathered to date on how the social and economic conditions of the farm workers have been affected by the Fast Track Land Reform Programme. Because of this, Farm Community Trust Of Zimbabwe (FCTZ) carried out an assessment of the situation of farm workers in a variety of contexts, using the Household Economy Approach (HEA). FCTZ has been working on the commercial farms for the past four years.
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