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Policy Framework and Principles

Zimbabwe has a total land area of 39.6 million hectares. Thirty-three million hectares are reserved for agriculture while the rest is reserved for national parks forest and urban settlements.

Zimbabwe's economy is agro-based. The agriculture sector contributes about 33 percent of formal employment and accounts for 40 percent of the total exports.

As the majority of Zimbabweans are rural and derive their livelihood from agriculture and related activity, agricultural development is a key strategy towards poverty alleviation and overall economic development. In order to guide all future activities relating to the agrarian reform, the Government produced the Phase II project Document of June 1998 and reused it in February 2001 to supersede the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme documented activities.

The principal objectives of the Land Reform and resettlement Programme are crafted from the national Land Poly. It was in the 1992 National Land Policy that strategic land sizes as detailed in the 1992 National Land Policy of the various agricultural sectors were established, and are summarised in the table below:-

Strategic Land Sizes

The aim of the 1992 National Land Policy was to create a just, democratic and efficient land economy and also involve the people in the drive for national development.

The 1992 National Land Policy was re-drafted and approved. The objectives of our National Land Policy can be summarised as follows:-

•  To ensure equitable and socially just access to land;

•  To democratise land tenure systems and ensure security of tenure for all forms of land holdings;

•  To provide for participatory process of management in the use and planning of land; and

•  To promote sustainable and efficient use and management of land. (more....)