ABSTRACT
The rate of development across geographic space is uneven and the resultant unequal distribution of development is of concern to both planners and policy-makers in the Third World as is reflected in various National Development Plans that indicate concern with issues such as diversified and balanced growth. This chapter focuses on marginality at the sub-national level with special reference to one specific marginal area in Zimbabwe that is Binga District that lies in the Zambezi Valley. Issues such as the district’s long-standing isolation, the fragile physical environment, and a marginal agricultural base, systematic marginalization during the colonial period, and a post-colonial state that is in search of a regional development policy, help to explain why Binga District is under development. In Zimbabwe, regional differentiation has been associated with physical or natural factors on the basis of which agro-ecological maps indicating areas of greatest and lowest agricultural potential have been developed.
