Globalization, Climate Change and Uneven Development in Africa: The Zimbabwe Farmers Experience 

The twin processes of climate change and globalisation coincided with radical land reform in the post land reform process in Zimbabwe to present a threat for smallholders' accumulation and inclusive agrarian relations. This paper identifies the nexus of climate change resilience and smallholders' accumulation under globalised agro-industrialising production where contract tobacco farming now predominates. The article assesses the shift in farming systems in response to global commodity circuits' demands, often unaligned to climatic change and rising risks associated with emerging resilience patterns. Using participatory research methods in Mvurwi area, 20 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and eight focus group discussions were administered in 2020. The paper reveals that smallholders are adversely incorporated into the production of climate change risk crops but continue to participate in the production of the crops to earn foreign exchange and cash-based income. This promotes extroverted agricultural commodity production, avoiding indigenous droughtresistant and viable food crops. Participation in tobacco contract farming poses risks to the environment from excessive cutting down of trees for curing, but also because of the conversion of newly resettled and communal landowners into 'disguised and underpaid workers' for global capital, itself responsible for the initial environmental harm and uneven development. These findings reveal the risk associated with internationalised production systems, where due to globalisation, relevant and oftentimes indigenous farming systems and crops are discontinued. The paper concludes that the escalating risks associated with climate change require smallholders to embrace climate change resilience techniques through the adoption of new farming systems for sustainable food sovereignty, accumulation and inclusive agrarian relations.