ZIMBABWE has historically struggled to maintain a decent quality of life among its population, particularly in rural areas.
In recent years, drought, regime change and inflation have posed further challenges to the southern African nation.
The burdens of these challenges, through increasing the cost of basic goods and services, has been felt most by those beneath the poverty line.
Approximately 40% of Zimbabwe’s population lives on less than US$2,15 per day.
Furthermore, according to the Human Development Index (HDI), a metric composed of healthcare, education and quality of life, Zimbabwe is ranked 159 out of 192 countries.
Rural areas are particularly underprivileged, with social infrastructure concentrated in urban centres.
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Despite these daunting statistics, the agricultural industry, through privately-owned farms, is employing several strategies to reduce rural poverty in Zimbabwe.
The Borgen Project spoke with Archie Strong of Disi Farm, based in Mvurwi, Mashonaland Central province, to discuss how his farm is having a profound poverty-reducing effect on the local community.
Disi employs “bottom-up” methods, in conjunction with local communities and “top-down” methods, through collaborating with United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organisation (NGO) schemes, to contribute greatly to the local alleviation of poverty in Zimbabwe.
Bottom-up
Disi Farm started its journey in 1927.
In the turbulent years since, its management has integrated a number of outreach prograes into the local community.
From the 1950s, Disi has been running daycare clinics, allowing workers to access free childcare and education for older children.
The farm enforces strict child-labour laws, encouraging local children to keep out of the crop fields and stay in school wherever possible.
In late 2008, Zimbabwe’s monthly hyperinflation rate reached 79,6 billion percent.
The financial crisis had terrible humanitarian consequences; without purchasing parity, food and basic services become luxury for many.
The Borgen Project spoke about Disi’s “food pack” policy, introduced in 2008, which aims to mitigate the harms of hyperinflation.
“They [the workers]can take half of their salaries as food pack each month, which provides them with essentials, things like salt, oil, a ground maize meal, which makes a kind of porridge called sadzq, which is the bread of Zimbabwean cuisine.”
Through importing essential food items in bulk, the farm can offer its workers accessible and relatively cheap nutrients as a proportion of their salary, protected against inflation, and without the associated costs of travel.
Police funding
Police in Zimbabwe has historically been struggling with underfunding.
In 2023, Home Affairs deputy minister Chido Sanyatwe appealed for increased police funding, suggesting that the dilapidation of many Zimbabwean police stations was lowering officer morale and making it difficult for them to carry out their duties.
As a result of the limited police presence in rural areas, many crimes, such as domestic abuse, often go unreported.
The Borgen Project discussed Disi’s bi-monthly community hall domestic abuse forum.
In these forums, attendees are encouraged to report instances of domestic abuse.
The farm, of course, cannot arrest reported abusers, but it can use employment as a leverage to enforce better standards of domestic behaviour: “if there are repeated accusations of poor behaviour, then we terminate the employment.”
Combatting alcoholism
One final bottom-up strategy Disi has integrated is the use of sport to combat alcoholism in young people.
According to a 2019 World Health Organization (WHO) report, Zimbabwe has the highest number of 15- to 19-year-olds engaging in heavy “episodic drinking” in Africa, with 70,7% of males and 55,5% of females participating.
The rising poverty rate in Zimbabwe could also affect the increasing alcohol consumption.
Many young people choose to drink heavily as a result of high unemployment rates, reducing their chances of developing important workplace skills.
Disi has founded two football teams, providing kit and equipment to local players.
Through encouraging young people to play sport, the farm is fostering an emphasis on an active, community-based lifestyle, instead of one of drinking.
Top-down
Zimbabwe currently focuses on delivering a 40% reduction in per-capita emissions by 2035.
As a result, several NGOs and the UN are currently working in partnership with Zimbabwean farms, such as Disi, to integrate projects that simultaneously tackle poverty whilst reducing the impact of emissions.
My Trees Trust is an NGO that focuses on reducing natural woodland loss throughout the country.
Every year, Zimbabwe loses 250 000 hectares of trees, greatly reducing carbon capture capacity.
In partnership with My Trees Trust, in 2020, Disi Farm set up a tree nursery capable of producing 10 000 trees per year.
As well as increasing carbon sequestration, the nursery directly benefits the local community.
For free, locals can grow a wide variety of fruit trees, which contribute an important source of income and nutrition.
Furthermore, since 2024, the UN has worked in partnership with the Zimbabwean Carbon Market (ZiCMA), the Environment, Climate ministry and Wildlife Zimbabwe, to deliver a carbon credit system.
The ZiCMA currently has 282 users, representing agriculture and other industries, who are rewarded for encouraging sustainable development within their local communities with carbon credits.
Disi Farm, as a result of this scheme, has distributed aluminium stoves throughout Mvurwi.
These stoves are 70% more efficient than open flames, and therefore combat deforestation rates through reducing local wood consumption rates.
The stoves aid the carbon capture initiative, whilst providing developmental benefits for the local community.
Overall
Although Zimbabwe faces many challenges to sustainable development, particularly in rural areas, the strategies integrated by farms like Disi are having profound effects on poverty alleviation in local communities.
Through a combination of “bottom-up” and “top-down” policies, Disi Farm is working actively to improve many facets of life in Mvurwi, with the dual benefits of carbon capture and poverty alleviation.