Conflicts in land use in Zimbabwe: Political, economic and environmental perspectives

Major conflicts have developed between and within the two main farming systems in Zimbabwe, especially over the past thirty or so years. Since independence in 1980 policies have favoured expropriation of land from commercial farms to resettle peasant farmers as a means of relieving ‘land hunger’ in the peasant sector. This article argues that that is a very simplistic view of current land-use problems, and that resettlement programmes are only a partial solution to the immense problems within the peasant sector. These are the product of a complex history of development incorporating political, economic and environmental issues. The article outlines the main features of this development so that a more balanced perspective on current problems can be achieved and so that more appropriate strategies to tackle the problems can be devised.     

Commercial Farm Workers and the Politics of (Dis)placement in Zimbabwe: Colonialism, Liberation and Democracy

The widespread land occupations of 2000 demonstrate the uneasy fit of commercial farm workers within the politics and development of Zimbabwe. Not only have farm workers borne the most violence at the hands of land occupiers, but their current socio-political situation on predominantly white-owned commercial farms has either been reduced by a nationalist liberation war binary of exploitation/abuse by racist white settlers or totally elided through human rights and democracy discourses anchored in the liberal subject. Based on periodic fieldwork research with commercial farm workers from 1992 to 2000, this paper analyses how farm workers have been represented by the various public actors during the current land occupations and the complex ways some farm workers have responded to these events. The emphasis is on how political actors need to rethink the situation of commercial farm workers if they are to take an active role in the improvement of their living and working lives.     

The Land Crisis in Zimbabwe Viewed from South of the Limpopo

Farm invasions in Zimbabwe have highlighted the pressing need for land reform throughout the southern African region. In South Africa, where the racial disparities in land holding are most severe, the events in Zimbabwe have raised the temperature of the land debate and led to calls for land invasions by some rural groups. The ANC-led government, facing criticism from both right and left for the slow pace of reform, has veered between strident defence of private property rights and threats to expropriate white farms. White farming interests have reacted differentially, with some progressive voices joining the calls for an accelerated reform programme. Current land reform policy in South Africa seems set to advance the interests of emerging black commercial farmers and tribal chiefs at the expense of the rural poor and landless.     

实行家庭承包经营制度 加快发展合作经济组织

从农业发展的基本规律及国内外农业发展的历史经验出发,阐述了我国农业实行家庭承包经营和发展林农合作组织的意义与必然性。农业的基本特点决定了农业要实行家庭经营,家庭承包经营制度是我国农村的基本经营制度。实现对土地的永续利用,要求赋予劳动者长期产权。实行家庭经营,农民与土地联系最紧密,与土地产出利益最直接,是农村改革成功的关键。集体林权制度改革是与当年实行家庭联产承包责任制一样伟大的创举。主体改革就是把集体林地经营权确权到户。在家庭承包经营基础上,通过农民自己的合作组织提供服务来逐步走向现代化,是包括林业在内的农业需要解决的重大问题。加快发展合作经济组织是加快农业经营方式转变必然之路。     

农业专业合作社的融资供求衔接问题研究

农业专业合作社融资具有一般企业所不具有的特殊性。论文从理论角度分析了农业合作社融资次序的选择,认为通过正规金融实现合作社融资供求衔接的有效途径。在供求不平衡,传统信贷供给无法满足合作社融资需求的状况下,探索了“公司＋合作社＋农户”、“农业龙头企业＋担保公司＋合作社＋农户”、“政府＋农业生产基地＋农业企业＋合作社＋农户”三种农业产业链融资模式,并分析了其主要特点、优势以及主要风险,为合作社融资提供了新思路。     

私人借贷与农村经济和农民生活关系研究-以土改后中南区为例

私人借贷在全国解放前一直是农村金融体系的重要组成部分。解放以后,从20世纪50年代初期中南区各省的调查材料来看,由于经济落后、家庭经济弱小、缺乏完善的社会保障和现代金融体系等原因,私人借贷虽受到抑制但仍有一定程度的发展。这一时期的私人借贷在功能上以互助互济为主,在一定程度解决了农户生产生活上的诸多困难,促进了农村经济的发展。国家银行业务在农村的延伸和农村信用社的发展在一定程度上压缩了私人借贷的空间,但不能完全替代私人借贷。     

Class and the Politics of Participatory Rural Transformation in West Bengal: An Alternative to World Bank Orthodoxy

Based on a primary field survey and secondary sources of information, this study analyzes the West Bengal experience of participatory rural transformation in relation to the changing class structure in a differentiated rural economy, the rise in class-consciousness among the rural poor and the participation of different classes in the political process of decision-making. Utsa Patnaik's (1987 ) labour exploitation criterion is used in order to rank rural households in class terms, alongside the standard acreage groupings. This study strongly refutes the neo-liberal (World Bank) idea of social capital and civil society as sources of 'people's participation'. It is argued that 'people's participation' is a meaningless concept, since the 'people' as a category includes different classes with conflicting interests. Though subordinate classes in West Bengal have achieved a higher level of class consciousness than in the past, and have resisted extra economic coercion, and while their political participation has risen, their involvement at the grass roots level of administrative decision-making is very weak. Panchayat Raj has so far failed to initiate a second phase of institutional reform in West Bengal, encompassing education, gender justice and above all the co-operative movement. This partial failure is the outcome of short-term electoral benefit being given priority over and so undermining class struggle.     

城市化进程中农村土地制度改革的构想

中国的基本国情是人多地少 ,土地是中国农民的主要生产资料和唯一的社会保障。文章在论述家庭土地承包经营对城市化进程的有利与不利两方面影响的基础上 ,提出稳定家庭土地联产承包制 ,调整承包期、界定土地产权关系、建立农民承包土地使用权流转机制、建立健全农村社会保障体系等农村土地改革和土地制度创新的构想