Disrupting Rural Transformation: Systemic Agricultural Failures and the Emergence of the Extractive Economy in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s rural transformation agenda has long centred on agriculture as the engine of development, food security, and poverty alleviation. However, systemic failures in the agricultural sector have undermined these aspirations, giving rise to an alternative survivalist mode of economic engagement, the extractive economy. This study investigated how deep-rooted structural weaknesses, including policy inconsistencies, underinvestment, land tenure insecurity, and climate vulnerability, have eroded agricultural productivity and displaced rural populations from farming into informal and extractive activities.Anchored in deagrarianisation theory, this study explored the gradual retreat from agriculture as a way of life and as a source of identity, income, and social status. Using a desktop approach, this study uncovers how rural people navigate and negotiate new livelihoods in the face of agricultural collapse. The findings reveal that while the extractive economy offers short-term relief, it contributes to environmental degradation, social instability, and long-term development stagnation. The informal nature of these economic alternatives also excludes rural populations from state support and formal social-protection mechanisms. The article concludes that rural transformation in Zimbabwe has been disrupted not by the absence of effort but by the failure to create enabling agricultural systems that are inclusive, climate-resilient, and youth-centred. The need to reinvest in rural infrastructure, secure land rights, integrate informal activities into policy frameworks, and promote diversified rural economies beyond monoccrop agriculture is recommended. Without these shifts, rural Zimbabwe risks being permanently trapped in an unsustainable mode of survival. This study deepens the understanding of rural transformation in Zimbabwe by revealing how systemic agricultural failures driven by policy inconsistencies, market distortions, and declining productivity foster an extractive economy.