Farmer Perceptions On The Impact Of Farmer Led-Irrigation Initiatives On Crop Production Under Redistributed Lands: A Case Study Of Mazowe District A1 Resettled Farmers, Zimbabwe

Abstract

- This article acknowledges that land reform is critical in the development and transformation of economies especially in Sub Saharan Africa. (SSA). Land reform is a planned purposive change in the way land tenure is held or owned. It also includes the methods of cultivation that are employed and in a way, defines the relation of agriculture to the rest of the economy. Like most economies in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), agriculture in Zimbabwe plays an important role in the country’s economy and also on the livelihoods of the rural populace whose quest for food security and nutrition, income and expansion of their rural economies is embedded in agriculture. This is clearly spelt out in the Zimbabwe’s economic blue print, the National Development Strategy One (NDS1) where agriculture forms the important enabler for the country’s social and economic transformation by the second Republic of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Farmers under the A1 model of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) have engaged in Farmer Led-Irrigation (FLI) initiatives to complement irrigation programmes by the Government of Zimbabwe. The main goal of these initiatives is to increase crop productivity that invariably enhances small holder farmers’ livelihoods. Rainfall agriculture has proven to be unreliable in the face of climate