Land reform can be successful with serious farmers

Mukachana Hanyani
For over a decade now Zimbabwe has managed to transfer the land ownership scheme from the few white commercial farmers who were just about 4 500 to the black commercial farmers now numbering over 300 000. Zimbabweans for nearly a century were denied by their colonial masters opportunities to show their skills in farming business as they had no land to do so.

Most Zimbabweans were domiciled in unfertile land which was not suitable for farming but had no choice as it was the land in which they were driven to. The colonial era saw a lot of indigenous people driven out from arable land by the white colonial masters to semi-arid and unfertile areas which were not good for farming hence making farming business becoming a preserve for the whites only in the country.

Some few black people who wanted to try farming found the going hard as banks were also reluctant to give loans to some indigenous people who had no collateral means matching some white commercial farmers for mega loans.

For that reason, the land reform that was initiated by the government more than a decade ago came as a blessing to the indigenous farmers who received that initiative with open hands. As such the new farmers should now show the world that it was not a drama for the government to allocate them land but it was necessary for such a move.

Farmers should take farming as a business venture which can be used to sustain livelihoods of most families in the country as a means to show the world that they have been empowered by their own government.

So the move by government to make the farmers pay levy commensurate with what one owns should not be taken as a move against the land reform but this should be taken as a good move to make sure that real farmers are identified.

Actually the payment of levy would make the government get the required capital for infrastructural developments that could take place in those farms. People should welcome this move as a way of sustaining the land reform.

However, the land reform which came at the right time when a lot of people were beginning to lose patience over the delay by government to allocate them some pieces of land should not be abused by those new farmers.

It is now incumbent upon all those who got allocated land to be serious in farming. People should realise that farming is so good to the extent that if properly done and managed, farming can become a business venture which could assist government in lowering unemployment rate in the country.

For that reason, Zimbabweans should show the world that they did not exercise the land reform program for the sake of it but they did that as a new chapter concerning the development of the country. Farmers should show the world that Zimbabwe has got some serious farmers who can make the country become the food basket of the region as it was previously some few years ago.

Farming really wants people who are devoted to that business and government as the main stakeholder to the land reform program should also encourage new farmers to become serious in farming as to produce more for the country`s consumption as well as for export.

People should be aware that the international community is monitoring all developments in Zimbabwe with key interest to see whether the land reform was really meant to empower the indigenous people or it was just meant to drive out the former commercial farmers out of it.

It is a fact that the land reform did not come cheap as the country got isolated by the international community through economic sanctions as well as international travel bans to top government and ruling party leadership.

For the country to have farming as a successful business and for the country to revert to the food basket status of the region, government should make sure that those who got allocated land should be encouraged to take farming seriously and make sure that they farms are productive.

The government should put down some monitoring mechanism to those with land to see if they are really in farming business so that there is no land left idle. It is necessary for the government to see that the land reform program is a successful story through having productive farmers on the ground. Serious farmers could be identified by having those with land being always in the farms managing all operations undertaken there.

Zimbabweans should be aware that it is real a fact that a country with serious farmers become prosperous as farming can assist the country to increase its gross domestic product(GDP) thereby making the county be able to feed its nation.

People who are not serious in utilising their land which they were given by the government must have that land taken from them and given to those ready to become serious farmers.

Actually real farmers are always on the ground making sure some farming operations are being undertaken effectively. The concept of cell phone farming which has been denounced already by President Robert Mugabe should be abolished. Those who think that they can become serious farmers using cell phones must have their farms taken and get allocated to those on the waiting list.

Zimbabwe for more than a decade and half went through an economic malaise because of some sanctions imposed on the country by the western world as a reaction over the land reform program.

For that reason the government should let people settle in farms doing nothing as this is counterproductive. It is a fact that Zimbabweans can burst the economic malaise of this country by taking the farming business seriously.

In fact the government should make sure that those who were allocated A2 farms which in actual fact are the commercial farms should be encouraged to focus their energy and power to farming. They need to utilise their land and possible resign in other commitments and taking farming seriously. Of late those allocated A2 farms have been failing to do productive farming because they spend most of their time at businesses like gained full employed in either the public sector or the private sector thereby hindering the proper management of their farms. Some of such farmers use resources from their work places as a means to utilise their farms thereby suffocating businesses in which they are employed.

So such farmers should be made to choose whether to remain at work or go farming. It is known that one cannot serve two masters at a time hence common knowledge call for one to stick seriously on his/her area of specialisation.