7. Land use planning in the tsetse-infested area of the Zambezi Valley has been the subject of two FAO consultancies (Green, 1985; Brunt et al, 1986). The latter study made a broad assessment of the development potential of the Valley and made recommendations for strengthening and coordination of land use planning in the area. Emphasis was placed on the need to keep tsetse control, land use planning and the actual implementation of development projects in balance. The Zambezi Society (1988) recently compiled a directory of the many land use development projects in progress in the Zambezi Valley.
8. FAO is funding a project presently in progress to prepare a 'Master Plan' for the development of the Zambezi Valley and is providing manpower assistance to the planning unit of the Agricultural and Technical Extension Services Department (AGRITEX) of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement (MLARR).
9. Much of the tsetse-infested part of the Zambezi Valley comprises national parks and safari areas (protected areas; see Map 2), for which there is no present intention to change the designated land use. Outside these protected areas, three major land use planning projects at Omay, Kanyati and the Mid-Zambezi Valley (Map 2) cover much of the area remaining infested, or immediately threatened with reinvasion, by tsetse flies. The Omay (in preparation) and Kanyati (ARDA, 1987) schemes are being funded by the EEC. The Mid-Zambezi Valley Rural Development Programme (MZVRDP) is being funded by the African Development Bank (ADF, 1986). A donor is apparently interested to finance another large land use planning project in the Zambezi Valley to the east of the MZVRDP.
10. Traditional agro-pastoralism is likely to be an important form of future land use in all of these rural development programmes. In Zimbabwe this involves individually-farmed arable plots and communal grazing. In the present Communal Farming Areas, household arable plots average about 3 hectares, and about 80% of all households keep grazing animals including an average of about five cattle (GFA, 1987). The large majority of households have less than 12 cattle, although some have substantially more.
11. The role of cattle in the traditional farming system centres upon provision of draught power and not beef production. Animal draught power enables farmers in the Zambezi Valley to cultivate larger areas and to achieve better yields as a result of more effective and more timely ploughing (Barrett, preliminary results 1) as has been reported elsewhere in Zimbabwe (Shumba, 1984). Cattle also provide milk, manure and occasionally meat for the household. As a form of rural banking, surplus animals are sold for major cash requirements and livestock are used for bridewealth. Cattle ownership provides social status and livestock have ritual functions such as the honoring of ancestors.
