Introduction
Tour Itinerary
Destinations
Small Farm 1
Small Scale Agr
Rural Lifestyles
Rural Migration
Role of Women
Drought
Small Farm 2
Commercial Farm
Non Trad' Farm
Issues
Theories
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Small Farm 1 - Monze

Rural Migration

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Every year in the area around Monze young people leave their villages. Forced out by shortages of land or the need to earn money to support the family the young and fit adults migrate in search for waged work. However when you talk to members of the village you find out that this is not a recent phenomenon. Since colonialism there has been a constant migration to the towns, the copper mines and commercial farms.

The reserve areas were intended by the colonial administration to provide much needed cheap labour for the commercial crop and livestock farms of the European settlers located in other areas called Crown land. These provided wages opportunities for Africans. At Independence some of the European settlers sold their land to Africans creating small holding of 2-25 hectares whilst some chose to remain in Zambia and continued commercial farming with farms varying between 200 to 5000 hectares.

Rural Lifestyles

The reserve areas were neglected by the colonial administration that saw mining as the key to Zambia's economic development. Agriculture was seen as providing a supporting role offering cheap food and a supply of labour to work in the mines. The large settler-run farms, were allocated the most fertile lands, close to important transport links, and given the task of supplying maize to the mining areas and areas of high food demand.

Due to the lack of economic development there is limited access to wage employment in the reserve areas. The farms characterised by their small size are lacking investment, and infrastructure. The resultant low productivity and low incomes provides little incentive to remain.

Young people leave these villages to work in the commercial farms and mines. People also leave with the hope of acquiring leases for private land and becoming commercial farmers. The communities left behind are predominantly old people, women and children. Rural depopulation traditionally leaves rural areas with shortages of labour preventing them from increasing production.

Ironically many of the people who have migrated find it difficult to obtain employment as the rate of migration has outstripped the capacity of the commercial farms and mines to provide work. The impact of inward migration to urban areas is great. The influx of large numbers of people into towns and cities that lack the resources to provide work, housing and social infrastructure has placed great burdens on the urban areas. The growth of shanty towns and slums, with insufficient sanitation, health and medical provision, a growing informal sector, increased crime rates and high incidence of diseases associated with high density high poverty living are a major concern to the government.

The level of rural depopulation has slowed down as the government and NGOs find ways of preventing the exodus from the rural areas. The HIV/Aids pandemic is also causing a severe shorage of rural labour which is beginning to cause reverse migration back to the farms. By providing lending and borrowing facilities for small and medium scale farmers, supporting co-operatives and subsidising inputs such as fertiliser, rural migration can be slowed down. With the growth of these farms both subsistence agriculture and large-scale commercial farms are becoming less important. Farmers see the potential benefits from staying and working the land

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Related Glossary Items:
Productivity
Investment
Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
Informal sector
Native Reserve Land
Native Trust Land
Subsistence Farming
Infrastructure

Related Issues:
Urbanisation
Life in Shanty towns
The role of women

Related Theory:
Poverty and the cycles of poverty