Deeply controversial land reform in Zimbabwe helping small farmers adapt to climate change, research suggests

Tobacco sorting at Mr and Mrs Chiwa land reform area farm, in an image captured during fieldwork by the Institute of Development Studies - (Ian Scoones)

Zimbabwe’s deeply controversial land reform programme - widely seen as a “failure” characterised by violence and economic chaos - has helped thousands of farmers adapt to escalating climate crisis in the country, according to new research.

The new data, which has been collected by a research team led by Professor Ian Scoones at the Institute of Development Studies, shows that smallholder farmers in areas that have undergone land reform are seeing bumper crops compared to those smallholders that work in so-called “communal areas” that have not undergone reform.