There are a lot of blogs on the site to choose from – nearly 600 since 2011 – so readers often find ones that were published a while back and some oldies get republished. The search facility on the site is quite good, so do have a search as the longer-term story of Zimbabwe’s land reform (and many associated debates) is interesting to review.
In terms of posts in the top 20 this year, there are a few old faves. The pig blog seems to get found on searches regularly as people seek to develop on-farm ‘projects’. This was not meant as a practical how-to guide to establishing piggeries, but I hope it’s useful. In the same way entrepreneurs interested in poultry, horticulture and so on seem to find their way to the blog.
The UK election was an important political event for some of us this year, but as predicted in the blog the consequences for development aid and Africa are not significant. In some respects, the incoming Labour administration is repeating some of the old mistakes that previous Labour governments have made in respect of Zimbabwe, especially with the failure to readmit Zimbabwe into the Commonwealth. However, the far more important story for next year(s) I suspect will be the return of Trump in the US and the question of how China readjusts its economic relations with Africa given its domestic economic challenges.
The series on small towns, urban agriculture and so on remains popular and readers will be happy to know that we have done new work on small towns and rural-urban linkages and a new blog series will appear in the new year. Themes on agricultural and rural finance correctly attract substantial interest, as well as debates around the potentials for agriculture-led private sector growth. Land tenure is currently a hot topic in Zimbabwe and the recent series on land markets has generated interest given the current policy interest, with the World Bank position on this questioned in another popular blog this year.
There are a few blogs in the list on environmental issues, ranging from carbon to elephants, plus the wider questions of drought and climate that appear repeatedly in posts on Zimbabweland. We will again be returning to these themes in the new year, hoping that the current dry spell doesn’t persist and the impacts of the El Nino drought of last season will not be repeated.
Finally, there are a couple of blogs on the bigger land reform and resettlement story in Zimbabwe, including a brief history of experiences pre-2000. The wider debate about land redistribution is covered in a blog that discusses a dialogue session at the Global Land Grabbing conference in Colombia this March.
Next year is the 25th anniversary of the ‘fast-track’ land reform in Zimbabwe and our research is gearing up to develop a retrospective look at what has happened across our sites where we have sample households that we have tracked for most of this period. Look out for updates from this work. One of the early updates will be a blog series on inter-generational succession and young people’s livelihoods in land reform areas, a crucial practical and policy issue across Zimbabwe.
1. The growth of small and medium-scale poultry production in Zimbabwe
2. Zimbabwe’s new agricultural entrepreneurs I: pig production
3. The changing remittance economy in Zimbabwe
4. The growth of urban agriculture in Zimbabwe
5. Commercialising horticulture in Zimbabwe: some case studies
6. Booming horticulture markets in Zimbabwe: a growing ‘hidden middle’
7. The UK election: new development priorities in Africa?
8. Why financing agriculture in Zimbabwe needs a rethink: limited credit and few loans
9. Livestock populations decimated by ‘January disease’ in Zimbabwe: diverse local responses
10. Land tenure reform in Africa: why customary systems are important
11. Zimbabwe as the new carbon frontier: dangers ahead
12. The trouble with elephants: why limits on culling are bad for conservation
13. The World Bank and land: some questions
14. Urban agriculture in Zimbabwe: a photo story
15. Private sector-led transformation in Zimbabwe: can agriculture drive growth?
16. Financing agriculture: what are the challenges and opportunities in Zimbabwe?
17. Zimbabwe’s resettlement experience from 1980 to 2000
18. El Niño drought hits Zimbabwe hard
19. Can a new global wave of land redistribution emerge?
20. Policies for land, agriculture and rural development: some suggestions for Zimbabwe
This blog was written by Ian Scoones and first appeared on Zimbabweland
Post published in: Agriculture