Sundaymail Editor
Sikhulekelani Moyo
LAND experts have called for increased collaboration between the agriculture and manufacturing sectors to boost rural economies, cut raw material imports and drive national industrialisation.
The calls were made during the Smart Township and Rural Opportunities Forum hosted by DEAT Capital on the sidelines of the 65th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), which ended in Bulawayo yesterday, where experts unpacked key issues on the land tenure system, food security and development.
In an interview, Zimbabwe Land Commission Commissioner Rosemary Tsitsi Choruma-Dowa said industry and agriculture could not be separated, as they were interdependent.
“Now, we are importing most of our raw materials, and yet some of them are so simple that we can kind of regulate and say, we are expecting this region to produce so much tonnage of this raw material for the production of a certain product,” said Dr Choruma-Dowa.
“This requires people who do the analysis, it requires our agriculturalists and industrialists to sit together and speak to those interlinked areas that are so important for economic growth.”
To address the issues, Dr Choruma-Dowa said there was need for a land management policy to deal with situations where some people owned large tracts of land, but were productively utilising only small parts of it.
She said whether one possessed a title deed or not, the policy would provide guidelines and enable people to understand the importance of land.
Adjustments to the country’s land tenure system announced by President Mnangagwa last year are expected to unlock huge amounts of capital funding, improve land security and spur economic growth.
The new era of this tenure system could see all land in the hands of beneficiaries of the Government’s Land Reform Programme under 99-year leases, offer letters and permits being held under a bankable, registrable and transferable document.
Dr Choruma-Dowa said 20 percent of agricultural land was owned by women, pointing out that priority should be given to vulnerable groups, including youths and people with disabilities.
Close to 255 000 farms, she noted, had been audited, with the use of new technologies making the process easier. She said focus was mainly on A1 farms to resolve issues around multiple ownership and double allocations.
Land expert Professor Mandi Rukuni said no industrial revolution could occur without an agricultural revolution happening first.
He said the agricultural revolution was important as it ensured that raw materials were available at low cost, and in abundance from local producers to promote food security in rural and urban areas.
He said land governance was central to this, stressing that only when farmers become direct suppliers of a manufacturing sector, where the economic process starts, would rural economies be linked to urban economies.
“Without title deeds and fully owning their properties, so that when they produce, they can link directly to the industrial sector, then it’s difficult to industrialise the nation,” said Prof Rukuni.
“During the Land Reform Programme, one important thing happened, which was the redistribution of land from very few 6 000 white farmers to close to 300 000 people who got that land.
“What did not happen, which was supposed to happen, was to immediately link that (land) redistribution to production for factories.
“It’s important today that with the title deed programme, the Government prioritises the reopening of factories so that farmers can supply different types of factories. Maize alone can go into 10 different types of products.”
Prof Rukuni said the Land Reform Programme should lead to industrialisation of the nation and stop the importation of basic foodstuffs that the country is currently buying outside the country.
He said the rural-urban migration was being driven by the need to access quality services like education and hospitals.
He, however, said this was negatively affecting the country as productive land remained idle, with people running to urban areas without functional industries that could provide them with jobs.
“We need people to remain in rural areas to make it possible to mass-produce the raw materials, like grains, oilseeds and herbs, including livestock,” he said.
“Rural people drive industrialisation through mass production, and that is what allows mass consumption.”
He also commended the Government’s initiatives to decentralise services to rural communities, saying this will allow easy access to services and promote participation and economic growth.
The new land tenure system is expected to revolutionise the Land Reform Programme started by the Government in 2000, and ensure the bankability and transferability of land title.
Online Reporter