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ZIMBABWE has for the past 33 years been battling to correct the skewed land ownership which favoured whites. After independence in 1980, Government guided by the Lancaster House Agreement started acquiring land to resettle the landless black Zimbabweans on the willing buyer/willing seller basis. Under this arrangement not much ground was covered as whites were not willing to sell the land and the situation was compounded by the British Government which reneged on its undertaking to fund the acquisition of land owned mostly by its kith and kin.
In the year 2000, the Government in response to the agitated landless Zimbabweans who were fast losing patience at the slow pace the resettlement programme was progressing, embarked on a fast track resettlement programme. Under this programme Government identified and acquired land for resettlement regardless of whether or not the owners were willing to sell the land.
The Government made an undertaking to pay for the improvements on the acquired land and not the land itself. This saw thousands of landless Zimbabweans moving into prime farming areas that were reserved for the minority whites by the successive settler regimes.
In response to the Government’s move to correct the land ownership imbalances, the western countries imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe to punish Zimbabweans for claiming what was rightfully theirs. Today despite the illegal sanctions, Zimbabweans are proud owners of productive land unlike in the past when they were confined to barren land so that they could continue to provide cheap labour to farmers and industries. The challenge to new farmers is to use the land productively so that as a nation we can shame our detractors.
We cannot agree more with the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda who said now that the land was in the hands of its rightful owners, the nation expects to derive benefits. Dr Sibanda, who was addressing farmers at a Seed Maize Grower Competition in Bulawayo last week, said farmers should consolidate the gains of independence and the land reform programme by fully utilising the land. This, he said, would guarantee the country food security. Dr Sibanda said the Government was committed to attaining food security and therefore stakeholders in the agriculture sector should strive to empower the new farmers.
“Achievement of national security is anchored on high productivity in agriculture which in turn impacts on other economic activities. Cognisant of this, the Government will leave no stone unturned to ensure that Zimbabwe will not only provide a guarantee for food security to its people but that it regains its position as the bread basket of Southern Africa,” said Dr Sibanda.
The communal farmers before independence used to produce about 80 percent of the country’s food requirements and now that many of these farmers have been allocated land in prime farming areas, the nation expects them to produce even surplus for export. What is, however, needed is to ensure that the new farmers are empowered in terms of equipment to use and farming inputs. The Government, given its competing priorities, might find it difficult to continue providing inputs to farmers as it has done over the years. It is time all stakeholders in the agricultural sector such as financial institutions, producers of inputs such as seed and fertilizer come up with schemes to provide inputs and cash to farmers who will then pay after harvest.
This approach is not a new concept because this is what the white farmers were being provided. In the event of a drought such loans were rolled over to the next harvest and this is what should be done to the new farmers. Confirmation that a farmer was indeed allocated land by Government should provide the required collateral for one to qualify for loans. Government on its part should have a mechanism to monitor productivity on farms and those farmers who cannot deliver have no business to be on the farms. They should pave way for committed farmers.
We want to once again remind the new farmers that as beneficiaries of this finite resource, they have an obligation to feed the nation.
Online Reporter