The Sunday News
Zimbabwe’s land reform was revolutionary in a number of ways and continues to inspire the landless within the region and globally. Our detractors have made all sorts of comments about our land redistribution programme but many are beginning to appreciate the social injustice and colonial imbalance that the programme sought to redress.
This week the country takes a giant step towards addressing some concerns of the beneficiaries under the A1 resettlement programme, who are the majority of the 300 000 beneficiaries, in terms of land tenure.
Elsewhere in this edition we carry an article in which the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Dr Douglas Mombeshora, is quoted as saying that President Mugabe would this week officially launch the new A1 Farmers’ Permit, which replaces offer letters. This, we are told, would bring sanity in the land redistribution process by centralising the issuance of land and land permits.
If there is one thing that the Government has reiterated over the years, it is the irreversibility of the land redistribution programme and the move to address land tenure anxieties through the introduction of the permits would most likely lead to increased security and consequently productivity by the farmers.
Dr Mombeshora said the offer letters that A1 farmers were using were not detailed enough and were issued by several offices, which created confusion in the process. The new document works as a title deed to the land and endorses farmer’s security of tenure as well as governs the use of land.
“Drafting of the A1 permit according to Statutory Instrument 53 of 2014 is now complete. Unlike the offer letters which were issued out at district level by several offices, the permit will be issued by the Minister of Lands.
“This is a much more detailed document which also has guidelines on the inheritance of the farm in case the owner dies,” he said.
We are encouraged by reports that the Government has engaged banking institutions over the use of the new permits as security by farmers intending to secure loans to develop their land. A lack of resources has affected the productivity of many farmers since banks did not accept offer letters as giving the farmers title to land and hence could not take the risk of offering loans to such farmers.
After the redistribution of land, the new challenge is on ensuring productivity of the land and it is our hope that the Government and the private sector will embrace the new developments and seek new support mechanisms for our farmers to make the goals of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation a reality.
Under Zim Asset, the country seeks to get back its status of being the bread basket of southern Africa through increased productivity that ensures not only national food security but also ensures that the country has enough even to feed the region and beyond.
Funding for agriculture is quite key just as extension services for the farmers should also be a priority going forward. Of course there are still issues surrounding allocation of land, boundary disputes and multiple land ownership and it is worrying that the ministry reports that it was facing problems in addressing some of these challenges due to a lack of funding.
The Surveyor General’s Department should be capacitated to do its work without any hindrance. We are sure once the issues of title over land are addressed there should be clear guidelines and targets for the different farmers so that the national resource in their control is used for the growth of our economy. Agriculture is the backbone of our economy and increased production on our farms will provide raw materials for our industries some of which are constrained by a lack of raw materials to produce finished goods.
