Suchergebnisse

Livestock owners, elites and non-elites alike, from different parts of Namibia fence in land that belongs to the indigenous San people who collectively manage their land as a conservancy. Fencing violates the Communal Land Reform Act of 2002. The conservancy started a lawsuit in August 2013 with reference to this Act to remove the fences and end the illegal occupation of land. The High Court ruled in 2016 in favour of the conservancy, but the fences have not been removed and more illegal settlers have settled in the conservancy. We conceptualize and analyse the act of fencing as land grabbing but argue simultaneously that the legal battle of the conservancy is more than a struggle for justice. The case unfolds as an ontological struggle between actors, their institutions and respective policies and discourses, pivoting on conflicting visions of modernities of (rural) development in Tsumkwe West. The wider significance beyond N≠a Jaqna is that the core of struggles about land and rights in situations of land grabbing is whose modernity counts. The court case has also paved the way for conservancies and other resource communities to become involved in dealing with land issues and contesting the multiple meanings of land.

The functioning of markets is premised on the creation of collaborative relationships and networks. Food markets in Zimbabwe are evolving in response to state interventions that aim to restructure the marketplace and the flow of produce. This article explores Mbare Musika, the oldest and largest marketplace in Harare supplying the city with fresh fruit and vegetables. We analyse Mbare Musika from the perspective of the interactions among farmers and retailers, vendors, transporters, intermediaries, officials, and customers, in creating and sustaining a specific enduring market. We use actor narratives to understand the ordering and (re)ordering of people and produce in the context of informalization, shifting polycentric relationships, and market infrastructure to sustain livelihoods anchored on the circulation of large volumes of diverse fresh produce. The market is overtly economic in outlook but, intrinsically, it is a social arena where discourses are continuously reconstructed, reproduced, and expressed through daily interactions. We situate Mbare Musika in past and present sociopolitical processes of transformation in Zimbabwe.

This book focuses on empirical experiences related to market development, and specifically new markets with structurally different characteristics than mainstream markets. Europe, Brazil, China and the rather robust and complex African experiences are covered to provide a rich multidisciplinary and multi-level analysis of the dynamics of newly emerging markets. Rural Development and the Construction of New Markets analyses newly constructed markets as nested markets. Although they are specific market segments that are nested in the wider commodity markets for food, they have a different nature

This study is part of a larger effort to explore the impact of agricultural research on poverty reduction. It examines the diffusion and impact of hybrid maize in selected resettlement areas of rural Zimbabwe, paying particular attention to varieties made widely available from the mid-1990s onwards. While "Zimbabwe's Green Revolution" of the early 1980s was characterized by the widespread adoption of hybrid maize varieties and significant increases in yields, the subsequent diffusion of newer varieties occurred more slowly and had a more modest impact. Several factors account for this. Government now plays a much-reduced role and one that increasingly focuses on "better farmers." Private-sector institutions that have entered the maize sector operate mainly in areas of high agricultural potential. Consequently, "adoption" partly reflects "choice" but also the (sometimes) limited physical availability of varieties. A further factor is the nature of the technology being introduced. Newer varieties are bred to meet the evolving needs of commercial farmers, but these new needs -- most notably improved disease resistance -- are not shared by the farmers in our survey and are not associated with significantly higher yields where use of fertilizers is limited. A further consideration is that information is disseminated via multiple channels and in a fragmentary fashion in an environment where tolerance of dissent is limited, the behavior of neighbors is viewed suspiciously and some actors involved in dissemination (such as extension workers) are increasingly viewed with mistrust. The presumption that farmers "learn from each other" is less applicable in circumstances such as these. Our case studies indicate links between the production of maize in excess of subsistence needs, the accumulation of assets such as livestock and tools, payment of school fees, and the acquisition of inputs such as fertilizer and labor for the subsequent cropping season. This coincides with the views of farmers who see high-yielding varieties of maize as an influential factor in raising livelihood above the level of poverty that prevailed when they first moved into the area. However, new varieties appear to have increased incomes only marginally. When we control for farmer characteristics and the endogeneity of adoption, use of these new varieties increases crop incomes only by about 10 percent; a 10-percent increase in maize income is associated with an increase in livestock holdings ranging from 4 to 12 percent. However, these modest impacts result in an improved ability to deal with vulnerability. Hybrids do raise productivity in maize production. Higher income from maize, and from other crops, leads to investment in livestock. And livestock holdings are an important means through which child health is protected when drought occurs. All such changes are associated with an improvement in well-being and a reduction in poverty ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; GRP26 ; FCND