The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
THE Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement has issued more than 23 000 offer letters in the Midlands province to beneficiaries of the land reform programme following the Government directive to issue resettled farmers with tenure documents to ensure maximum use of land. In an interview, Midlands provincial lands officer, Mr Joseph Shoko, said 1 300 A2 and 22 000 A1 farmers had been issued with offer letters by the ministry by the end of last week.
Mr Shoko said the province had been hit by rampant cases of double land allocation to beneficiaries.
He said there was confusion in the issuing of offer letters to beneficiaries of the land reform programme as some cases of double allocation were recorded in most parts of the province but predominantly in Gweru.
“There has been confusion in the issuing of offer letters as the district land committees made double allocation of land to beneficiaries. The cases are rampant in Gweru districts. The situation is, however, under control. We are rectifying the mistakes and resolving some of the land disputes amicably,” he said.
Mr Shoko said the Midlands had also recommended the immediate issuing of offer letters and tenure documents to dairy and cattle farmers in the province.
“We have about 33 dairy and cattle farmers in the province and we have recommended that these farmers be issued with offer letters to enable them to increase their production as well as access loans from banks following Government’s policy which seeks to protect dairy and cattle farmers by sparing them from the land redistribution programme,” he said.
Government recently assured dairy farmers of tenure documents that would guarantee them land and to be spared from the land redistribution programme.
In an interview recently, Land and Rural Resettlement Deputy Minister, Cde Tendai Savanhu, said Government had started issuing tenure documents to dairy farmers in a bid to improve on their production to ensure improved milk output in the country.
Local farmers are producing 4.5 million litres a month against the national demand of eight million litres.
“As Government through the Ministry of Lands we came to enunciate our policy in terms of the dairy industry that all dairy farmers for as long as they are producing they are assured of the tenure documents.
“Their security is guaranteed for as long as they are producing. This came in the wake of the decrease in milk production that has resulted in the country importing milk from neighbouring countries mainly South Africa.
“It is not a good thing for Zimbabwe to become a net importer of milk because if we keep on importing milk we are exporting jobs to neighbouring countries,” he said.
