Peasant transformation : a quest for socialist regional development strategy : a case study of Chipata District of Eastern Province

Abstract

This study examines Zambia's regional development planning attempts to construct an egalitarian socialist society. Specific attention is focussed onto whether the growth centre strategy - officially adopted by the Third National Development Plan (TNDP,1979-1983) - is an adequate strategy to institute socialist peasant transformation. For comparative purposes, tke rural development strategies are selected for analysis. Namely, the Peasant Farmers' Scheme - first introduced by colonial authorities - and the Lima Programme, introduced in 1979 as a component of the Integrated Rural Development Programme. These two are analysed with respect to their impact on the land tenure, the organisation of peasant farming and, the distribution of rural resources. A case study of Ghipata district in Zambia's Eastern Province is undertaken,. The study concludes that as yet Zambia possesses no effective regional development strategy to carry out peasant transformation. Both the growth centre strategy and its related peasant component, the Lima Programme, are not adequately equipped to transform colonial inherited relations of rural production along the envisaged socialist relations of production. Attention and research is urged, in the end, onto the alternative strategy of agropolitan development.