This study examined the causal relationships between inflation, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), domestic savings, and investment in Zimbabwe using Toda-Yamamoto causality tests and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach with secondary data spanning from 1990-2022. The Granger causality analysis revealed a bidirectional causal effect between inflation and GDP, indicating that inflation significantly impacts the country's economic growth. Additionally, the analysis showed a unidirectional causal relationship from inflation to domestic savings, suggesting that high and persistent inflation can erode the value of existing savings and discourage individuals from saving. Furthermore, the study found a distinct causal flow from savings to investment, without feedback in the opposite direction, highlighting the crucial role of a robust savings culture in providing the necessary foundation for sustained investment and economic growth. The ARDL approach provided further insights into the dynamic relationships between these variables. In the short run, lagged GDP and current and lagged savings positively influenced GDP, while the second lag of savings had a negative impact, supporting the Carroll-Weil hypothesis that savings typically follow, rather than precede, economic growth in the short run. The analysis also found a positive short-run and long-run relationship between investment and GDP, supporting the view that investment is an important factor of economic growth. The study recommends that the policy makers can leverage the synergies between savings, investment, and inflation management to foster sustained economic growth and development in line with the government development policies. Developing policies to attract savings and reduce the cost of savings, as well as promoting long-term savings over transactional savings, can increase the country's overall savings base.

This paper analyses the causal relationship between Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI), Equities Market Volatility, Exchange Rate and Inflation in Zimbabwe using a monthly time series data between October 2018 and November 2021. The granger causality model was used to present the link between the variables, and EGARCH was used to account for volatility and asymmetric effects on the variables. To incorporate innovations and responses into the Granger model, impulse response functions were used. Links between exchange rate and foreign portfolio investments were found. This only suggests that exchange rate volatility will vary when overseas investors purchase and sell financial securities on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE). In contrast, foreign investors sell local financial securities when local stock market returns are negative, leading to a significant outflow of foreign portfolio investment thereby reducing demand for currency. A significant causal relationship was found between the volatility of the exchange rate and stock market returns. It is assumed that stock market returns, and foreign portfolio investments are caused by fluctuating currency rates. The relationship between exchange rate and ZSE returns, and inflation was found based on Granger causality. This implies that stocks are not suitable for long-term investments that compensate investors for their diminished purchasing power. Policy makers should advise the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange to recommend a reduction in capital gains tax and withholding tax and this encourages investors to hold local equities for a long time.

With increasing economic instability coupled with climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic the subject of economic resilience in agripreneurship value chains in rural farming has gained prominence. Despite the constant engagements on the subject, there still is a missing piece on the determinants of economic resilience and sustainability for agripreneurship in tobacco value chains. The objective of this study was to characterize rural farming typologies which will assist in determining resilience and sustainability for tobacco value chains. The research adopted a pragmatic research approach, where quantitative results were triangulated with qualitative results to test the robustness of the research findings. A total of 250 questionnaires were administered to small scale tobacco farmers in Gokwe and interviews were held with selected 8 Agri-tex-officers. STATA version 12 was used to analyse quantitative data and thematic analysis using vignettes for qualitative data. The research findings showed a significant positive relationship between sustainable agripreneurship and economic resilience in tobacco farming in Gokwe district. The study recommends that the government prioritise the development of sustainable tobacco infrastructure throughout the value chain and training of tobacco farmers on resilient farming methods. This study offers theoretical contributions on how to achieve economic resilience and sustainable agripreneurship in tobacco value chains in Gokwe district.

This study sought to determine whether farm categories influence the key agro business supply chain metric of crop yield. The investigated farm categories are the communal farms, A1 farms, A2 farms, and commercial farms that reflect the agricultural structure that emerged from the post-fast-track land reform programme in Zimbabwe. Secondary data for crop yield was collected from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board publications of a five-year period spanning from 2014-2018. Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board is the regulatory authority of the Zimbabwean tobacco industry. The study used One-way ANOVA to test the specified hypotheses. A post hoc test was conducted using the Bonferroni procedure. The results indicated that crop yield is a function of the farm category. Communal farms had low crop yield, while A1 farm models proved to be very productive as evidenced by higher crop yield than any other farm category. A2 farms and commercial farms had unexpectedly low crop yield. The study recommended consolidation and transformation of communal areas into small-to-medium plots for the purposes of improving their agricultural viability, while at the same time downsizing the redundant A2 and commercial farms into small scale plots for the purposes of improving their efficiency. The study also recommended entering into resource-providing contract farming with A2 farmers whose current low yield might be due to lack of adequate input resources.

The world is increasingly witnessing food insecurity and deteriorating individual and global livelihoods. This study sought to assess the effectiveness of contract farming in the form of command farming in achieving sustainability of maize supply chain in Zimbabwe. A descriptive approach was adopted where a sample of 35 agricultural experts were randomly selected to respond to questionnaires. The researchers also relied on interviews with farmers, the results of which were triangulated with quantitative data to improve the dependability of results. The study shows a positive and significant relationship between command farming and sustainability of the maize supply chain in Mazowe district of Zimbabwe. The study, therefore, recommends the government to invest more in command agriculture to improve productivity and sustainability in the maize sector. It further recommends investment in joint contract farming with agricultural firms and government to improve farming business to sustain the country’s agricultural sector.

Food supply chain disruptions have of recent increased in terms of severity and frequency leading to viability problems for most businesses in related supply chain networks and hunger among millions of human beings. In the extant supply chain literature elements of responsive supply chain such as velocity, versatility, and visibility have been suggested as some of the possible strategies to build supply chain resilience. It has therefore been suggested in this study that these elements’ influence on supply chain resilience is moderated by contract farming as a special form of supplier development. Farming contracts are either production or marketing contracts. Data was collected from a conveniently selected sample of 200 restaurants that use supplier development in the form of contract farming for acquiring critical resources for their operations. A structural equation modelling was used to analyse data related to the direct effects and multi group structural equation modelling was used to assess the moderating effects. The results revealed that there is a statistically significant relationship between the three selected elements of responsive supply chain management and supply chain resilience, and all the hypothesised relationships were moderated by type of farming contracts, with the relationships being stronger under marketing contracts for supply chain velocity, and under production contracts than under marketing contracts for relationships involving versatility and visibility. Therefore, the study recommended that production contracts be used in the fast-food restaurant industry in order to reduce supply chain vulnerabilities, and marketing contracts to build supply chain capabilities. This is the first study that has sought to assess the differential utility of different farming contracts through assessing their moderating effects as a build-up on previous research that has already established that supplier development in the form of contract farming leads to supplier development.