Situation Report: Zimbabwe, Reaping the Harvest?

This situation report describes the inequitable land distribution in Zimbabwe following its independence from Britain in 1980, detailing the disparity in land ownership between white commercial farmers and indigenous communal farmers.

• Upon gaining independence from Britain in 1980, Zimbabwe had a land distribution system where a small minority of white large-scale commercial farmers held the most productive land, while the black majority were restricted to areas with poorer soil and lower rainfall.
• Land ownership statistics show that approximately 6,000 white commercial farmers owned 15.5 million hectares, and 8,500 small-scale farmers owned 1.4 million hectares, whereas roughly 700,000 indigenous communal farmer households subsisted on 16.4 million hectares, which was less than half of the total agricultural land in the country.

APA

Maroleng, C. (n.d.). Situation Report: Zimbabwe, Reaping the Harvest? Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.org/research/situation-reports/situation-report-zimbabwe-reaping-the-harvest-chris-maroleng-

Chicago

Maroleng, Chris. Situation Report: Zimbabwe, Reaping the Harvest? Institute for Security Studies, n.d. https://issafrica.org/research/situation-reports/situation-report-zimbabwe-reaping-the-harvest-chris-maroleng-.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Maroleng |first1=Chris |title=Situation Report: Zimbabwe, Reaping the Harvest? |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |url=https://issafrica.org/research/situation-reports/situation-report-zimbabwe-reaping-the-harvest-chris-maroleng- |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{marolengndsituation, author = {Maroleng, Chris}, title = {{Situation Report: Zimbabwe, Reaping the Harvest?}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.org/research/situation-reports/situation-report-zimbabwe-reaping-the-harvest-chris-maroleng-}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }