Livelihood Displacement Under Agrarian Collapse: Informalisation, Asset Erosion and Institutional Failure in Zvishavane Rural District, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The collapse of formal agriculture in Zvishavane Rural District has essentially reconfigured rural livelihood systems, pushing households to venture into informal and often precarious economic activities. The paper is fundamentally anchored in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF). It sought to examine how agrarian decline, largely driven by land reform disruptions, macroeconomic instability, climate variability, and institutional weakening, has fast-tracked rural informalisation. This study employed the critical realism philosophy to explain the deep-seated structures and mechanisms driving the shift from formal agriculture to informal livelihoods. The abductive/retroductive approach complemented the philosophy whereby the authors moved between data and existing theory (SLF) to establish the most credible explanation for why informalisation in Zvishavane represents systemic livelihood displacement rather than a developmental transition. The study analysed livelihood pathways, asset dynamics, and the sustainability of informal activities using the mixed methods design combining household surveys (n≈197), key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. The findings reveal a marked shift from agriculture-based livelihoods towards artisanal and small-scale mining, informal trade, and natural-resource extraction. While these activities alleviate short-term income and food insecurity, they are predominantly coping-driven, characterised by asset erosion, ecological degradation, weak accumulation, and regulatory exclusion. Conceptually, the paper advances the SLF by theorising informalisation as a structurally induced process of livelihood displacement, sustained through asset erosion and predatory governance rather than adaptive diversification. The paper thus contributes to debates on rural transformation by demonstrating that informalisation in Zvishavane Rural reflects systemic livelihood displacement rather than a developmental transition. Policy responses must therefore move beyond livelihood promotion to address structural drivers of agrarian collapse, integrate informal livelihoods into rural development frameworks, and strengthen gender-responsive, climate-resilient agricultural and institutional systems.