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This paper attempts to analyze the impacts of the ‘fast track’ land reform policy on maizeproduction in Zimbabwe through the construction of a partial equilibrium model that depictswhat could have happened if no further policy shifts had taken place after 2000. The resimulatedbaseline model was used to make projections based on the various trends ofexogenous variables in 2000. This means that the model generated an artificial data set basedon what the maize market would have looked like under a set of the pre-2000 existent policyconditions. The ‘fast track’ land reform policy was thus assessed based on the performanceof the baseline model using a range of “what if” assumptions. Commercial area harvestedwas 39 % less than what could have been harvested in 2001, and declining by negative80.57 % in 2007. Results showed total maize production was 61.85 % and 43.88 % less thanwhat could have been produced in the 2002 and 2005 droughts, respectively. This may implythat droughts would have been less severe if the ‘fast track’ land reform was notimplemented. Therefore, the ‘fast track’ land reform had a negative effect on maize production. Thus, the econometric model system developed provided a basis through whichthe effects of the FTLRP on the maize market may be analyzed and understood.
