Sowing Seeds of Change: Feminist collective action for agroecological transformation in Zimbabwe

This thesis examines how women in agricultural communities in Zimbabwe leverage collective action to advance agroecological transformation while challenging systemic gender inequities. It responds to the persistent marginalization of women in Zimbabwean agriculture by investigating how collective action reclaims agency and reshapes agroecological systems. Despite constituting at least 70 % of the agricultural workforce in Zimbabwe, women face marginalization through unequal land access, exclusion from strategic decision-making, and devaluation of their indigenous knowledge. Grounded in Feminist Political Ecology (FPE) and Collective Action Theory (CAT), the study builds on qualitative document analysis and recurring fieldwork (2022–2025) in Zimbabwe’s semi-arid regions, using interviews, focus groups, and participant observation.
Findings reveal that women’s collectives within farmer organizations, community seed banks, and seed fairs, serve as crucial platforms for resisting gender-based exclusion and fostering innovation. These collective actions enable women farmers to reassert control over local seed systems, enhance agrobiodiversity, improve climate adaptation strategies, and reinforce their agency and community resilience. Such grassroots initiatives reconfigure power dynamics by redistributing resources, promoting equitable knowledge exchange, and redefining women’s roles and leadership in agriculture. Nevertheless, the research reveals inherent contradictions when transformative actions occasionally reproduce inequities while dismantling others. The study makes three key contributions: empirically I demonstrate how women’s collective action links
agroecology with gender equity, theoretically I advance FPE by centering Southern African women’s experiences, and as regards policy, I offer recommendations to integrate ecological resilience with gender justice. By foregrounding Zimbabwean women’s leadership, I argue that agroecology – rooted in collective organizing – is a powerful strategy for achieving systemic change towards ecological balance and gender justice. These generated insights hold global relevance by demonstrating effective, context-specific models of collective action that can inform broader strategies to support marginalized groups worldwide. Findings also provide valuable guidance for scholars analyzing gender dynamics in agriculture, policymakers aiming to develop inclusive agricultural policies, and social movements striving to build resilient, equitable, and sustainable food systems in widespread smallholder farming.