The Impact of Differentiated Land Allocation: The Case of Voluntary Land Resettlement in Copperbelt Province, Zambia

Most resettlement programmes have the stated objectives of poverty reduction mainly targeting the poor communities especially the landless and regional development targeting those with own resources to invest in agricultural activities. The Voluntary Resettlement Programme in Zambia has differentiation embedded in its process as people are not only allocated different plot sizes but accommodates different category of settlers with diverse access to resources and assets. In order to have a better understanding of the precariousness of livelihood construction in the resettlement process in Zambia, this research explores the impact of differentiated land allocation on different category of settler farmers in terms of survival, consolidation and accumulation at farm household level. To achieve this, both the Sustainable Livelihood and Agrarian Structure frameworks were utilized to provide a deeper analysis of the specific research questions on access to resources, diversification, organization of labour, emergence of relationships of labour, tenancy and the role of different actors in the resettlement process. The findings show that a new agrarian structure has emerged characterised by differentiated relations between settlers within the scheme and other actors outside the scheme. The resource rich farmers are not only dominating the resource poor in terms of providing labour opportunities but also concentrating land to themselves thereby altering the initial land control structure. But despite most poor settlers being disadvantaged, they depend on labour as their valuable asset and some supportive social networks which act as caution against vulnerability and livelihood constraints. Relevance to Development Studies Resettlement programmes regardless of their objectives, poverty reduction or promotion of regional economic development, endeavour to empower people, especially the poor and landless with access to land to engage in economic activities such as agriculture in order to improve their livelihoods. However, people access resources differently and use diverse ways to construct pathways out of poverty, thus posing a development concern which requires developmental experts to have deeper understanding of the precariousness of rural survival and well being.