Abstract:
Zimbabwe has recently gone through a widely criticised land reform process that is argued to be
the cause of subdued agricultural production. This paper attempts to present a counterfactual
picture of the maize market in Zimbabwe had land reform been managed appropriately. The
counterfactual is developed through a partial equilibrium framework in order to quantify the
impact of the land reform programme. This, to our knowledge, is the first attempt at applying a
partial equilibrium framework to an analysis of the impact of land reform. The results of the
post-2000 land reform policy simulation showed that actual total maize output was lower than
what could have been produced if it was under a pre-2000 land reform system. The study
validates the assertion that land reforms contributed to the contraction of output. These results
suggest the need for a well planned and executed land reform process, which can still play an
important role in output growth and food security.
