What was it like farming in Zimbabwe?

Question

crops, hectares/ acres of land, machinery used and also animals.

Also pictures would be cool or a website.

Answer 1

For a country where even the government is currently predicting a poor maize harvest and inflation is reported to be the highest in the world, even glimmers of hope must be welcome. In the face of food shortages, it is hardly surprising that increasing numbers of urban Zimbabweans are looking to grow their own, if only to supplement their family food needs.

But alleviating the nation's hunger pangs is creating a headache for Zimbabwe's urban planners, who generally see cultivation of urban spaces as standing in the way of urban development, not to mention creating environmental and health risks. They could do well, however, to learn from the experience of Bulawayo, the country's second city.

Bulawayo leads the way

Greener and more relaxed than the capital Harare, Bulawayo has, since the late 1990s, taken a more encouraging stance towards urban agriculture. In 2005 it became one of three pilot cities in southern and eastern Africa for the Cities Farming for the Future (CFF) programme of the RUAF Foundation. Formulating a workable policy for urban agriculture development has been at the heart of that programme.

Such policy formulation is, however, a highly complex task, involving numerous management areas: landuse planning, waste management, public health, housing programmes as well as economic, social and community development. The number and variety of stakeholders is even greater, and in Bulawayo, legislation on urban farming dating back to the 1970s has proved a further complication.

Forum for action

A central plank in the CFF strategy has been to encourage greater dialogue in resolving the dilemmas posed by urban agriculture. In Bulawayo, this has involved establishing a forum to carry out Multi-stakeholder Policy Formulation and Action Planning (MPAP). This approach goes beyond getting feedback on existing policy plans. Rather, the forum members, including local and central government officials, NGOs, farmers associations, researchers and members of the business community, have received training to help them define problems, opportunities and policy issues, in order to frame and implement plans of action.

Established in 2005, the Bulawayo forum has since developed a city action plan, which focuses on how agriculture can be integrated into wider urban planning and development. Importantly, an agreed process for implementation has also been established, with the forum reporting directly to a municipal planning committee, which in turn reports to the full municipal council.

hope this will help

Answer 2

This should help:

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Afric...

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/zi-z...