Urban expansion eats into agric land, says minister

Blessings Chidakwa in Kadoma
At least 45 000 hectares of agricultural land has been lost to urban expansion spurred by illegal parcelling out of land in the past decade, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo has said. Addressing a workshop for provincial and district administrators in Kadoma recently, Minister Moyo said peri-urban expansion was destroying land meant for agricultural production.

He expressed concern at the rate at which urbanisation was affecting agricultural land.
“I have sat with my counterpart, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Chief Air Marshal Perrance Shiri (Rtd) and we were given by two official sides, the preliminary figures that over the past 10 years, 45 000ha of agriculture land was taken for urban development,” he said.

“The land lost is quite huge and it is like we have created a second Harare with that lost land. All the peri-urban farming land has been gobbled.”

Minister Moyo also revealed that peri-urban disputes were also a major cause of concern.
“Peri-urban issues had been with us for more than a decade and as a ministry, we decided to bring the affected parties together to see their challenges while mapping a way forward”, he said.
The minister said operations of local authorities were also strained due to disputes between urban and rural councils.
Minister Moyo urged councils to consider building high rise buildings for residential purposes.

“Do not ask for land because councils are gobbling so much fertile land. Now we want structures that go up, especially in those councils affected as well as cluster-to-cluster houses,” he said.

Minister Moyo said shortages of land had also led to stream bank cultivation.
He implored councils to plan properly for smooth distribution of land.

“President Mnangagwa has been preaching the gospel that Zimbabwe is open for business, but who wants to invest in a council that has poorly planned land?

“Local and foreign investors are grappling to invest in this country and they just want to know where to set up their structures,” he said.
Minister Moyo said the new dispensation required planned local authorities to enhance their economic activities.