Impact of Illegal Gold Mining / Panning on Farming Activities in Zimbabwes New Resettlement Areas; A Case of Selected Farms along the Mazowe River in Bindura District; Mashonaland Central Province

Since the launch of the Fast Track Land Reform FTLR in Zimbabwe in year 2000, agricultural production on farms has been badly affected by illegal mining activities particularly gold panning along the countrys major rivers. Mazowe River which stretches from areas bordering northern parts of Harare to Kaborabasa in Mozambique was never spared from the destructive operations of the miners, as it is one of the countrys richest sources of alluvial gold deposits. To assess the impact of this illegal scavenging of the precious resource chikorokoza on farming activities, a study was conducted in selected farms along the Mazowe River in Bindura district. Central to the research was to explore the extent to which the current primitive mining methods have negatively impacted on the farming activities of the newly resettled farmers in Zimbabwe as a whole. To generate relevant data a purposive sampling was found to be the most ideal technique as it focused only on knowledgeable members of the artisanal miners and the farming community. The study solicited data from 60 participants constituting 20 miners, 30 farm workers and 10 A2 farmers some of whom were randomly picked in the provincial town of Bindura. Guided interviews complemented by questionnaires were used to gather varying responses from participants. The collected data was later analyzed through descriptive statistics where tables, frequency counts and percentages were employed for purposes of presenting the findings. The findings indicated that there is need for government and other stakeholders to adopt a holistic approach in implementing policy and monitoring strategies that will totally plug the illegal activities for the good of farming in Zimbabwes resettlement areas.