Crisis over land reform programme

The Zimbabwean government’s resettlement programme might succeed in giving land to poor blacks, but the effects on food security, investment and the performance of the agriculture-based economy might be catastrophic, analysts told IRIN. President Robert Mugabe’s government has said it aims to compulsorily acquire 3,000 commercial farms to resettle landless peasants. Already 1,952 farms, amounting to five million hectares, have been gazetted for acquisition under the “fast-track” resettlement programme. Charles Mutasa of Zimbabwe’s Poverty Reduction Forum told IRIN the programme has alienated commercial farmers who have not started preparing the land for planting ahead of the rainy season. “The threat of compulsory land acquisition has created uncertainty among commercial farmers, leading to a halt in farming activities,” Mutasa said. He argued that ordinary Zimbabweans will suffer the consequences of this uncertainty. He said food security problems will arise as most of the resettled peasants do not have the means to carry on with commercial farming. Mutasa said the resettled people, if they start farming on the acquired land, will only be able to sustain subsistence production as the government has not provided them with adequate support or training. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Zimbabwe said the government would find it hard to provide the resettled peasants with resources such as roads, social infrastructure and farming inputs. “The government has no money for these expenses as it no longer receives budgetary support from donors,” Dennis Nkala of UNDP told IRIN. He said since the fast-track programme had polarised the land issue, chances of donor funding for the programme was unlikely. “The only activity on these acquired farms will be subsistence farming,” he said, adding that the programme had emphasised only the political imperative to the exclusion of the economic impact on the country. Economist John Robertson told IRIN the land acquisition programme will lead to the collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy. He said initial estimates indicated a drop in the country’s GDP by up to 50 percent. “Commercial farming will fail as a result of the acquisitions, and the government will lose all the tax revenue it earns from dispossessed farmers as well as the foreign currency generated by the agriculture exports,” said Robertson. The displacement of farmworkers from the acquired properties will also add to the country’s unemployment, already estimated at 50 percent. Mutasa said as the government resettles people on the designated farms, farmworkers are forced to move out, thereby losing both their jobs and accommodation. About 50,000 of the commercial farmworkers, out of a total of about 300,000, have already been rendered homeless and jobless since the farm invasions started in February.