Zimbabwe - Mid-Zambezi Valley Rural Development project

The Mid-Zambezi Rural Development Project offers opportunities to combine both resettling and development of the growing rural population in order to exploit the agricultural potential of the area. The project would settle 3,000 families thereby providing them with a gainful livelihood as well as easing the pressure of population in the overcrowded neighbouring communal areas. These families would be settled in some 130 villages of between 20 and 25 households, each depending on the availability of water supplies. The project would provide agricultural support for on-farm development, mechanization, credit, extension, co-operative and natural resource development. together with social and physical infrastructure, including rural services centres with clinics, feeder and access roads, classrooms and village water supplies. The project would also provide office facilities, vehicles and housing for staff. As a result of the project then, there would be a total cultivated land of 23, 100 ha, and an additional 32,340 ha of marginally arable land available to support livestock production. The project would result in incremental production of cotton and food crops such as maize, sorghum and millet.