Land Commission hands over report to President

Harare (New Ziana) – The Land Commission, which was set up to audit ownership and use of agricultural land in the country, on Wednesday handed over a report on its findings to President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The report, titled land information management system, is now a national database which contains data on farmers with title deeds, offer letters, permits, small scale farms, resettled farmers and commercial farmers.

Speaking after presenting the report, Commission chairman, Tendai Bare said a total of 254 538 farms were audited countrywide during the five-year exercise.

“We audited the farms over a period of five years, the first two years we established the instrument, and doing the dry runs testing the instrument in all the provinces and in all the districts where agricultural land is vested,” he said.

The instrument used consisted of 42 questions and sub-questions with the information having been gathered pertaining to allocation, distribution of beneficiaries by farm categories where they come from, investment made by the beneficiaries, production, land management, environmental management, provision of social service, extension services among others.

She said she only presented an abridged version of the thick document with vital statistics which the commission thought will be of interest to the President for the purposes of evidence-based policy formulation and strategic intervention to ensure productivity on a sustainable basis.

The exercise, which cost Z$25 billion, is meant, among other things, to ensure social equity, economic growth and poverty eradication, Bare said.

She said one of the interesting snippets in the report is the enjoyment of a basket of rights by farmers as articulated in the constitution, despite the fact that some of them may not yet have offer letters, including the right to transfer, occupy, use, exclusivity and ownership.

“The right that they do not enjoy according to the constitution is disposal and acquisition because agricultural land is vested in the State and the State can decide what type of tenure document they give you,” she said.

Bare said a lot of people have been saying farmers can be evicted from their plots any time for various reasons, but the farmers are saying they were truly entrenched, all they want now is the capacitation of AFC Bank so that they access cheap loans and become fully productive and contribute to economic development, food security, poverty eradication and development of the rural economy.
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New Ziana