Global experience with pro-poor growth and empirical work spanning India, Benin and Malawi demonstrates the importance of agricultural expenditure for poverty reduction in poor rural areas, while also pointing to the need for complementary non farm sector growth. This paper proposes a simple methodology to estimate the agricultural spending that will be required to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015 (MDGs) in Zimbabwe. This method uses growth poverty and growth expenditure elasticities to estimate the financial resources required to meet the MDGs. The paper attempts to address a key knowledge gap by improving estimation of first MDG agricultural expenditure at country level.

In many developing econonmies access to traditional entrepreneurial financing like banks and venture capitalists has remained suppressed. This has forced many entrepreneurs to resort to non traditiona lmethods of venture financing among them, financial bootstrapping and micro loans. One alternative that these ventures could employ is crowdfunding. Although crowdfunding has remained predominantly a developed world phenomenon, there has been strides in the emerging economies to employ it as an entrepreneurial financing alternative. This paper spught to investigate the factors that are driving the possibility of Zimbabwean entrepreneurs employing crowdfunding as a financing technique. Through survey data collection techniques and statistical data analysis this research mananged to highlight the factors in the crowdfunding ecosystem tht makes the Zimbabwean economy ready for crowdfunding activities. In line with existing literature five factors were uncovered as the major drivers that make crowdfunding possible in Zimbabwe and the results are used to infer to other emerging economies with similar characteristics.

In Less Developed Countries (LDCs) like Zimbabwe, agricultural production has been regarded by several studies as a paramount prerequisite for industrialization and economic growth. The idea behind this view is that, as agricultural production increases, countries are able to produce more food with less labour input which allows them to feed their growing population while releasing labour for the manufacturing sector and other sectors of the economy hence the process will lead to economic growth. The main objective of this study was to investigate how agricultural production affected economic growth in Zimbabwe from 1980-2010. The Log linear growth regression model was employed where gross domestic product was the dependant variable and the explanatory variables are the major crop products and factors which affect it. Four major crops which were included in the model are tobacco, maize, coffee and cotton. Moreover, a dummy variable for the prevailing weather conditions was also included in the model. The regression analyses were performed using Econometric-views 3 (E-views 3) statistical package. Regression was carried out on time series data for the period 1980 to 2010. The data was tested for stationarity and for autocorrelation. Problems of non stationarity of data were corrected by differencing the trending series. Results from the empirical analysis provide strong evidence indicating that agricultural production is important in improving the wellbeing of countries especially in LDCs. The results from this study suggest that the value of agricultural production of tobacco, maize and cotton positively affects economic growth in Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2010.

Article HistoryThis study compared the food security status for small grains and long grains smallholder farmers and analysed the factors that affect food security status for smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. The study was conducted in Masvingo Province of Zimbabwe and the respondents were stratified into small grains cultivators and long grains cultivators. Data used in the analysis of food security was collected through a researcher administered structured questionnaire. The results established that the adoption of small grains is widespread within the province. Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics had an effect on the dependence of either small grains or long grains farming. The results of the study revealed that both small grains and long grains smallholder farmers had at least attained primary education which reveals that all farmers are functionally literate. Results of the Household Dietary Diversity Score HDDS revealed that on average 76 percent of small grains smallholder farmers were measured to be food secure whilst only 41 percent of long grains farmers were food secure. The (HDDS) reflected the dietary diversity consumed by members of the household in the previous 24 hours Similar trends were observed from the descriptive statistics which showed that small grains smallholder farmers consumed relatively greater percentage of nutritious food groups than long grains smallholder farmers. Results of the Binary logit regression model indicated that the significant factors which explain food security status for smallholder sampled households are farming activity, education, number of livestock, remittances, income and access to credit. Contribution/ Originality:This study is one of very few studies which have compared the contribution of small grains and long grains cultivation to food security of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. The paper contributes to existing literature on food security for smallholder farmers in developing countries.

This study analysed the interconnectedness between economic growth and imports in the short and long run in Zimbabwe from 1975 to 2013. The Zimbabwean economy generally experienced positively associated trend between Gross Domestic Product and imports over the years. For precise and effective policy formulation, it is therefore necessary to understand the nexus between the two mentioned macroeconomic variables. Based on the results of the Johansen causality method, there is a short run unidirectional link between Gross Domestic Product and imports, running from imports to Gross Domestic Product. In the long run no evidence exists for the connection between the two variables according to the Johansen cointegration tests.