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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Dealing with Impoverishment: Sourcing and Selling Food in Masvingo
Author:Muzvidziwa, Victor N.ISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Zambezia (ISSN 0379-0622)
Volume:25
Issue:2
Pages:147-171
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Zimbabwe
Southern Africa
Subjects:food supply
female-headed households
Economics and Trade
Labor and Employment
Urbanization and Migration
Health and Nutrition
sociology
Gender-based analysis
food production
informal sector
Urban farming
street vendors
Masvingo (Zimbabwe)
External link:https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/AJA03790622_488
Abstract:Female household heads in Masvingo, Zimbabwe, where the author conducted fieldwork from November 1994 to December 1995, employed different strategies to ensure that food was available for their households, through shrewd shopping patterns as well as the strategic use of the household garden. The organization of meals and household budgeting highlighted the ability of the women to manage with very little. Food vending was at best a coping strategy. The food-vending market niche demonstrated the existence of interconnections between food vendors and the formal and informal markets. Urban food vendors were strategically positioned to benefit from both the urban and rural markets. Vending was necessarily a 'political' activity, since food vendors had to claim public space for their vending operations in the face of official harassment and opposition. Policies related to illegal and designated vending areas limited the development of food vending in Masvingo. Vending problems were largely structural, including the free market competition that was producing an over-traded food market, resulting in depressed returns for food vendors. Bibliogr., sum.
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