By Joseph Mujere and Sylvester Dombo

Since 2000 the land reform discourse in Zimbabwe has focussed on land redistribution as well as the new forms of livelihoods, which it allowed the peasants to have. Focus has also been placed on the impact of the land reform on issues like food security and poverty reduction. However, a new trajectory has since emerged which has seen large investment entrepreneurs getting into partnerships with the government to establish large-scale projects, which have led to displacement of peasant farmers. This paper seeks to analyse the new land grabbing drive by focussing on the Nuanetsi Ranch Bio-Diesel project in Mwenezi District and its impact on the peasants who had either been resettled in the ranch or had re-settled themselves. The focus of the paper will be on the controversies this project has generated and the responses of the local peasants to such a large-scale but non-food investment project. Against the backdrop of peasants centred land redistribution, the Nuanetsi Bio-Diesel project represents a new trend, which needs to be critically analysed. The paper also situates the Nuanetsi Bio-Diesel Project within the broader debates on large investment projects in the global south such as bio-diesel and mining?s impact on food provision and livelihoods of peasants.