Commercial land lies fallow

A number of small, medium and large commercial farms given to black farmers under Zimbabwe's fast-track land redistribution programme are lying fallow. Visits by IRIN to several provinces - Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West and Manicaland - revealed that a significant number of the new A2 (commercial) farmers have not been utilising the land allocated to them. Entire farms appeared neglected, with grass growing in fields that were once filled with crops. Farming infrastructure was derelict, suggesting that it had been vandalised. "The problem of absentee landlords is critical, and wherever you go you see vast tracts of land lying fallow," the acting director of the black-dominated Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union (ZCFU), Cleopas Mandebvu, told IRIN. "We are lobbying government and are in the process of compiling a report, based on our own findings, with a view to correct the situation. This comes out of the realisation that the objective to make Zimbabwe the breadbasket of Southern Africa once more might be compromised if thousands of hectares remain idle," he commented. Mandebvu said the problem was caused by new farmers who applied to be given plots but were not genuinely interested in farming, and did so "just for the prestige that comes with being called a commercial farmer". A land review committee set up by President Robert Mugabe submitted a report last August on the allocation of land during the fast-track reform process, which indicated, among other things, that 1,672 farms - about 2.1 million hectares - had been allocated to 7,620 applicants under the A2 scheme. Under the A1 model (small-scale and communal farmers), intended to decongest communal areas, 4.2 million hectares of farmland had been allocated to 127,192 households, as of 31 July 2003. The report said there was a land take-up rate of 66 percent, meaning that the remaining 34 percent of available farmland lay fallow, although a considerable number of people still wanted to be allocated plots. The findings claimed that 1,323 white farmers remained on their properties, a figure rejected the white-dominated Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU). The CFU has said that out of the 4,500 members they had before the fast-track land reform programme began, less than 700 remain on their farms. These figures are likely to have changed in the period after the report was submitted, since additional land was gazetted for compulsory acquisition to benefit military personnel, some of whom had been fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There have also been reports of some communal farmers being compulsorily removed after having been resettled, ostensibly to make way for top government officials, some of whom have been confirmed as owning more than one farm. "A COMPLEXITY OF PROBLEMS" Sam Moyo, a land expert appointed as head of the technical unit in the presidential land review committee, said some new farmers were failing to utilise farms "due to a complexity of problems". "When the fast-track programme commenced in 2000, policy priority was with the A1 scheme. Applications for the A2 model came late in 2001, with allocations starting seriously in 2002. Even then, only a small group was given land that year, with the majority receiving their plots in 2003," Moyo told IRIN. There was also a substantial hectarage that had been designated for A2 farming but remained unallocated, owing to the confusion that accompanied the largely unplanned programme, he said. The uptake of plots was also slow because there were contradictions and differences between the local authorities of the provincial and district land committees, and the central government. "Anomalies that arose out of those contradictions caused a lot of problems, with, in some cases, several applicants being allocated the same property, while other farms were designated as A1 when they were supposed to be A2. This made it necessary to once again go back to the drawing board," said Moyo. Some farmers were hesitant to start farming because of the uncertainty surrounding the land allocation programme, and said the new settlers had been given the go-ahead to farm in the absence of official letters. The presidential land audit report charged that there were corrupt land committee officials who abused their positions by forcefully removing genuine applicants to make way for their relatives and friends. The state-owned Sunday Mail recently reported that some senior government officials were attempting to evict new farmers without authority, citing a former cabinet minister, Edward Chindori-Chininga, as one such victim. Moyo said the new farmers had not been given security of tenure, making them uncertain about their future in farming. "But central to this whole problem of absenteeism and non-production on the farms is the economic context of farming. Many people who applied did not have the required resources and still do not, even though some of them lied [by saying] that they had. "They lack the capacity to operate because they do not have basic requirements, such as tractors and harvesters. A lot of the farmers have failed to obtain money to capitalise their farming activities, while a substantial number only managed to get small amounts," Moyo explained. "In addition, high inflation has [raised] the price of inputs beyond the reach of the new farmers, while interest rates have also made it prohibitive to borrow. Coupled with this, the new farmers lack requisite skills for specialised farming, and it might take a while for them to acquire the know-how," he noted. Despite the problem of under-utilisation of land, there are success stories. Amos Chaitezvi, himself an affiliate member of the ZCFU, farms in the Beatrice area in Mashonaland East, about 90 kilometres southwest of the capital, Harare. He has been on the farm since mid 2002, and now boasts about the maize, soya beans, onions, paprika and sorghum he is producing on his 300 hectare plot. "When I started, I had problems in sourcing meaningful funding for my farming activities, but I broke even when one bank gave me a big loan. Neighbouring farmers belonging to ZCFU chipped in with such things as tractors, and since then I have not looked back," said Chaitezvi. He was also lucky, because when he moved in he found most of the previous white farmer's infrastructure, such as irrigation equipment and boreholes, still intact. "I was also helped by the fact that there was ready labour to use at my arrival, and have since been trying to motivate my workforce by giving them salaries above the government-stipulated minimum wage of Zim $47,000." Chaitezvi has bought a truck to transport his produce to the market and hopes to expand his variety of crops in the near future. He expressed anger at beneficiaries who had been allocated land but were not using it. "There are no worse saboteurs than people who get land and fail to use it. The best thing is for the government to take that land and give it to deserving people who have not yet benefited, both under the A1 and A2 schemes. If the current scenario continues, we might see chaos as those who are land-hungry start another wave of farm occupations," he warned. The Zimbabwean government insists that it has recorded a food surplus for the 2003/04 farming season, although independent surveys by international organisations indicate that the country would need food aid.