Soil erosion and conservation techniques for sustainable crop production in Zimbabwe

Excerpt

ZIMRARWE, a country with a 150,965 square mile (391,000 sq. km) area, has a population of about 9.5 million people, increasing at the rate of three percent annually. Nearly 80 percent of the country's population lives in communal farming areas while the rest live in large commercial farming areas and cities.

The country is classified into five natural regions on the basis of rainfall. Rainfall in Zimbabwe is erratic in both distribution and occurrence. The mean annual rainfall varies from 12 inches (300 mm) in the low-lying arcas to 59 inches (1,500 mm) in eastern highlands.

Agriculture is the most important activity in the country's economy, producing more than 90 percent of food requirements and 40 percent of exportable merchandise. The agricultural sector is comprised mainly of two sub-sectors, the commercial sub-sector and the communal sub-sector. The commercial subsector contains about 4,500 farmers on 28,000 acres (1 1,270 ha). The communal sub-sector contains 850,000 farniers on about 40,400 acres (16,355 ha).

While the large-scale commercial operations are concentrated in high potential regions I and II, the communal sub-sector farmers are concentrated …