ABSTRACT
The first African purchase areas were created in 1930s after the Land Apportionment Act had been passed which divided Rhodesia's land between Africans and Europeans. Purchase areas, therefore, were part of the overall plan to separate African and European farmers. As African interest in freehold titles to land increased, government laid down ever stricter requirements for applicants. Until 1952 only some agricultural knowledge was required. The purchase areas of Guruuswa and Mutadza lie in the centre of Karangaland and are typical of most other purchase areas in the region. In Mutadza six farm owners were evicted in 1967 for unsatisfactory farming practices. The agricultural staff had sent negative reports about each of these men to the Land Inspectorate and had stressed that soil erosion was widespread on their farms. The Ministry of Agriculture is represented in purchase areas through a non-resident extension officer and several resident extension assistants. Normally there is one extension assistant to every fifty peasant farmers.
