The requirement for land reforms was a very old issue in Zimbabwe and was normally found, even by representatives of the marketable farming segment. Colonial policies of seizing gave a few thousand white farmers ownership of huge lands fit for cultivation.

According to the Government numbers available before the current disaster, a few 4,400 whites possessed 32% of agricultural land, approximately 10 million hectares. In the meantime, over 1million black families had struggled to stay alive on land that was distributed to Africans by the colonial rule.

In July 2000 the Zimbabwe Government officially announced the introduction of the land reform program, revealing it would obtain over 3,000 farms for reallocation. Just after the announcement, the Zimbabwean economy went into deep recession.