Family Farming Knowledge Platform

Roots of the Fast Track Land Reform

The Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) implemented during the 2000s in Zimbabwe represents the only instance of radical redistributive land reforms since the end of the Cold War. It reversed the racially-skewed agrarian structure and discriminatory land tenures inherited from colonial rule, whereby over 6,000 large-scale white farmers and a few foreign and nationally- owned agro-industrial estates controlled most of the prime land, water resources and bio-reserves, while relegating the majority of the population to marginal lands and cheap-labour services. The land reform also radicalised the state towards a nationalist, introverted accumulation strategy, against a broad array of unilateral Western sanctions. Indeed, Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform, in its social and political dynamics, must be compared to the leading land reforms of the twentieth century, which include those of Mexico, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Cuba and Mozambique.

Title of publication: Land and Agrarian Reform in Zimbabwe: Beyond White-Settler Capitalism
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Page range: 1-28
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Author: Sam Moyo
Other authors: Walter Chambati
Organization: Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
Other organizations: African Institute for Agrarian Studies (AIAS)
Year: 2013
ISBN: 978-2-86978-553-3
Country/ies: Zimbabwe
Geographical coverage: Africa
Type: Book part
Content language: English
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