Agricultural commercialisation and its implications for rural livelihoods and human welfare: lessons from Zimbabwe’s post-land reform context

Land reform and agrarian restructuring in Zimbabwe over the past two decades have reignited scholarly debate on the agrarian sector's role in tackling underdevelopment, poverty, food insecurity, and unemployment. Despite land reform remaining an overlooked vector of social policy, this paper critically examines Zimbabwe's post-land reform context, marked by the emergence of small- to medium-scale farmers pursuing agricultural commercialisation. This trajectory is partly linked to the country's recent political transition, which has emphasised neo-liberal agricultural and macroeconomic policies centred on commercialisation as key to boosting production, reducing poverty, and driving structural transformation. However, empirical evidence critically examining the nexus between land reform and agricultural commercialisation, and its impact on livelihoods, accumulation, production, social reproduction, human capabilities, and welfare, remains limited. Drawing on field-based evidence from rural Zimbabwe, this paper applies the transformative social policy framework to investigate agricultural commercialisation pathways in resettlement areas and their effects on production, social and capital accumulation, social reproduction, and welfare. Findings reveal complex and dynamic agrarian processes, with the Zimbabwe case offering important lessons on land and agrarian reform as a social policy instrument, one that has enhanced human capabilities, improved livelihoods, reduced rural poverty, and positively impacted household welfare and wellbeing.