Episode 6: From Rhetoric to Reality

We started this journey with a story of two farms. One was my family’s, rooted in the soil near Gweru, until it was lost in the turmoil of the early 2000s. The other was the historical reality of Zimbabwe — a nation fractured by a colonial line that separated a well-funded commercial sector from an under-resourced communal one.

That story of division, dispossession, and the painful struggle for land is the story of our nation. It’s what called me back home, what drove my work in Rangelands Regeneration, and what fueled my Nuffield journey across the world in search of answers.

Over the last five episodes, we’ve traced this line through our history. We’ve walked the ground with subsistence farmers, emerging growers, and large-scale producers. We’ve explored the lessons from the world’s most advanced agricultural economies. And we’ve laid out a set of principles for building a new agricultural architecture for Zimbabwe — one that is inclusive, competitive, and sustainable.

But principles on their own are not enough. The way forward does not lie in identifying entirely new solutions, but in executing well-understood ones with urgency, credibility, and scale. The task now is to move decisively from rhetoric to delivery.

So, in this final episode, I want to talk about the most important question of all: who needs to do what? Because this transformation requires a genuine partnership, with clear roles for government, for farmers and investors, and for our communities.

The role of government: creating the enabling environment

The government’s primary role is not to control, but to enable. It must create a predictable and secure environment where farmers and investors have the confidence to commit capital for the long term. This comes down to three key actions:

Fix land tenure, once and for all. This is the foundation. Without clear, transferable, and bankable tenure, investment will always be limited. The government must follow through on its commitment to make land leases and offer letters accepted as collateral to unlock long-term capital. Tenure security is the starting point.

Ensure policy consistency. Investors are deterred by uncertainty. The constant flux in regulations, especially around currency and trade, erodes confidence. We need stable macroeconomic policies and a reform of rules, like the foreign exchange regulations, that penalize our most productive exporters.

Invest smartly. The government is making huge investments in strategic infrastructure like dams, which is vital. But every new dam or irrigation scheme must be treated as a commercial and managed asset, not just handed over. This means embedding them in public-private partnership models that ensure they are run professionally and sustainably.

The role of the private sector: driving productivity

While the government creates the environment, it is the farmers, investors, and agribusinesses who must drive the growth.

For large-scale commercial producers: your role is to be the engines of innovation and export. This means investing in technology, adopting sustainable practices, and creating jobs. But it also means looking beyond your own farm gate. The most successful models we’ve seen are those that build outgrower schemes and market linkages, bringing smallholder farmers into formal value chains and transferring knowledge and skills.

For small-scale commercial farmers: your task is to graduate from the informal to the formal economy. This means embracing business principles, focusing on market demands, and seeking out partnerships and contracts that give you a stable price and a guaranteed buyer. It’s about moving from subsistence to building a sustainable enterprise.

For investors, both local and international: your role is to bring the capital and expertise that is so desperately needed. The rise of joint ventures shows the immense potential when capital aligns with land. But you must also demand the policy certainty and rule of law required to protect your investment.

Finally, for the millions of farmers in communal lands and on small plots, your role is one of adaptation and collective action.

First, embrace climate-resilient practices. In arid regions, this means acknowledging that traditional dryland cropping is no longer viable and transitioning to more appropriate land uses — whether that’s the wildlife economy, carbon projects, or intensive conservation agriculture like Pfumvudza on irrigated plots.

Second, organize and aggregate. As individual farmers, your market power is limited. By forming cooperatives and farmer associations, you can buy inputs in bulk, share equipment, and negotiate better prices for your produce. This is also the key to successfully managing community resources like irrigation schemes.

A story of hope

I moved back to Zimbabwe to prove that a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable agricultural future is possible.

’m deeply invested in the country, its people and its future. This podcast series hasn’t intended to criticise anything that’s happened in the past, or highlight present-day shortcomings, but rather to present a vision for the future which I’m acting on, and I hope many others will join me to achieve.

The challenges are immense, but the potential of our land and our people is greater. If we all play our part — if the government enables, if the private sector invests, and if our communities adapt — we can build an agricultural sector that secures livelihoods, sustains our environment, and once again positions Zimbabwe as a leader.

We can move from rhetoric to reality.

Thank you for joining me.

Links

Check out my Nuffield Report on the Future of Farming in Zimbabwe here

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