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Communal Area (communal + area)
Selected AbstractsBuilding landscapes: village development in ZimbabweLAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2001S. Moyo Abstract This paper argues that there is a need to fill a specific empirical and conceptual gap in land policy analysis in Zimbabwe. This ,gap' has arisen from the predominantly macro level economic theoretical perspectives on the land question, and from an inadequate conceptualization of the local level character of the land debate in Zimbabwe. The purpose of this paper is to stress the importance of focusing on the land question from the standpoint of the peasant householders in the Communal Areas (CAs). These issues are raised through the examination of land use and land-use history in Mhezi Ward in Makoni District, Zimbabwe. This paper does not comment on the recent political moves to redistribute 1471 Large Scale Commercial Farms (LSCF) as this process must be discussed in another debate. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Cropping strategies, soil fertility investment and land management practices by smallholder farmers in communal and resettlement areas in ZimbabweLAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2009J. G. Cobo Abstract Three smallholder villages located in typical communal (from 1948), old (1987) and new (2002) resettlement areas, on loamy sand, sandy loam and clay soils, respectively, were selected to explore differences on natural resource management and land productivity. Focus group discussions and surveys were carried out with farmers. Additionally, farmers in three wealth classes per village were chosen for a detailed assessment of their main production systems. Maize grain yields (t,ha,1) in the communal (1·5,4·0) and new resettlement areas (1·9,4·3) were similar but significantly higher than in the old resettlement area (0·9,2·7), despite lower soil quality in the communal area. Nutrient input use was the main factor controlling maize productivity in the three areas (R2,=,59,83%), while soil quality accounted for up to 12%. Partial N balances (kg,ha,1,yr,1) were significantly lower in the new resettlement (,9·1 to +14·3) and old resettlement (+7·4 to +9·6) than in the communal area (+2·1 to +59·6) due to lower nutrient applications. Averaged P balances were usually negative. Consistently, maize yields, nutrient applications and partial N balances were higher in the high wealth class than in poorer classes. This study found that most farmers in the new resettlement area were exploiting the inherent soil nutrient stocks more than farmers in the other two areas. We argue that effective policies supporting an efficient fertilizer distribution and improved soil management practices, with clearer rights to land, are necessary to avoid future land degradation and to improve food security in Zimbabwe, particularly in the resettlement areas. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Debunking the myth of overgrazing and soil erosionLAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2004K. Rowntree Abstract What is overgrazing? Does it cause soil erosion? The recent debate from the ecological literature is reviewed as background to the debate on overgrazing and soil erosion. This debate stresses the need to view dryland grazing systems as dynamic ecosystems driven more by rainfall events than by livestock numbers. The case for soil erosion is then examined. Two case studies from communal rangelands in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, have cast doubts on the conventional wisdom that overgrazing leads to soil erosion. The first, a study of historical land-use change and erosion in a communal area, showed that the most intense erosion, taking the form of steeply dissected badlands, was associated with cultivated land that had been abandoned and reverted to grazing from the 1960s onwards. Such severe erosion was generally absent from land that had been under grazing since the 1930s. The second study demonstrated that erosion rates from communal grazing lands (,overgrazed') were only slightly higher than those from land under ,optimal' grazing, that is grazing at a level considered not to exceed the carrying capacity of the land. These results support the ecologist's contention that communal grazing systems do not necessarily degrade the range condition relative to management systems based on a notional carrying capacity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Closing Frontier: Agrarian Change, Immigrants and the ,Squatter Menace' in Gokwe, 1980-1990sJOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 4 2001Pius S. Nyambara ,Squatting' in the communal areas of Zimbabwe has been largely ignored in the literature because it is assumed that it does not exist in a ,communal' land tenure system. This article argues that ,squatting' in Gokwe villages has become a common strategy by landless immigrants to access land. Gokwe has been a frontier region for many immigrants in search of land since the 1950s with intense pressure on land by the 1990s. As the frontier closed, the question of citizenship in Gokwe villages became more signi?cant than ever before. Those who are not formally registered as residents are de?ned by local government authorities and established villagers as ,squatters' who should be evicted. The article traces how local authorities and established villagers have responded to what they perceive as the ,squatter menace'. It further examines the means used by ,squatters' to lay claims to land and to defend those claims in Gokwe villages. [source] Local governance and water resource management: experiences from Northern NamibiaPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2008Farhad Hossain Abstract Like many semi-arid countries in Africa, Namibia has been experiencing water shortage for a long period of time. Prior to its independence in 1990, most of Namibia's water points,namely, the boreholes,served white-Namibians (about 7% of the national population of predominantly German descent) and their commercial farming areas. But their water needs have been satisfied at the expense of those indigenous Namibians and their communal areas (where some 80% of the national population originates). Independence, however, brought with it a new hope for the indigenous population: since 1990, the government has been working diligently to reform the country's local governance, and make local government agencies more effective, efficient and responsive to common people and their needs. This article sheds light on how, within the background of the government's decentralisation efforts, the management and distribution of water resources have changed in an independent Namibia, reporting findings from research conducted in a newly emerged village council in the north of the country. Drawing on historical and contemporary practices, we describe and analyse the role of decentralised local government in water resource management in northern Namibia, where today, more than 50% of the national population (i.e. the indigenous Oshiwambo-speaking people) resides. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||