This article explores agrarian labour relationships between the pilot Smallholder Gowe Irrigation Scheme, the contiguous dryland farming community and TILCOR/ARDA’s core irrigation estate in Sanyati, Zimbabwe, from 1967 to 1990. It is an analysis of the emerging smallholder cotton irrigation agriculture and the contradictions between this process and the labour requirements of the estate sector. The article argues that, once the main irrigation estate was established, the Gowe plot-holders, who until 1974 had existed as a quasi-autonomous unit (overseeing their own labour needs), then served as the estate’s major manual labour repository. At the core of the article is the interesting tripartite tension between a state-run cotton estate, a group of associated plot-holders (later outgrowers) benefiting from land and irrigation arrangements and a farming community at large.

本文探讨了 1967 年至 1990 年津巴布韦 Sanyati 试点小农高威灌溉计划、毗邻旱地农业社区和 TILCOR/ARDA 核心灌溉区之间的农业劳动关系。分析了新兴的小农棉花灌溉农业及其矛盾在这个过程和房地产部门的劳动力需求之间。文章认为，一旦建立了主要的灌溉区，直到 1974 年一直作为准自治单位（监督自己的劳动力需求）存在的 Gowe 地块所有者，就成为了该区主要的体力劳动仓库。文章的核心是国营棉花庄园之间有趣的三方紧张关系，