Resettled farmers risk losing land

05 Oct, 2018 - 00:10 0 Views
Resettled farmers risk losing land Minister Shiri

eBusiness Weekly

Martin Kadzere
Farmers resettled on farmland developed by white former commercial farmers risk losing their land if they fail to contribute towards compensation for improvements, but could take advantage of measures put in place by Government to generate income to meet their compensation obligations, a Cabinet minister said yesterday.

Perrance Shiri, Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement, told Parliament on Wednesday the farmers who benefited under land reform programme since 2000 would bear the “mandatory” cost for compensation.

The Government embarked on the land reform programme, an exercise meant to redress colonial land ownership imbalances by redistributing land from about 4 500 minority white former commercial farmers to indigenous people.

“There are improvements, which were done on the farms and the new farmer is utilising those improvements,” Shiri said.

“Quite a number of them now have got 99 year leases. It makes common sense that instead of labouring the tax payer, the person who is directly benefiting from those improvements contributes towards the compensation of the former farmer. But it’s not being done directly from the new farmer to the former farmer but . . . through the Government.”

Call to increase production
In an interview yesterday, Shiri said he expected “any reasonable” farmers to take advantage of measures put in place by the Government to make farms more productive.

These include joint ventures and Government assisted programmes such as Command Agriculture. Minister Shiri said it was a question of farmers getting assisted or risking losing their farms. By failing to take advantage of the options Government has put on the table, the minister said, “one would have adequately demonstrated that he is stubborn”.

“We expect any reasonable farmer to look for joint ventures,” Shiri said.

“If farmers face challenges, they can approach us for help so that we make sure these farms are productive (as) one should eventually contribute towards compensation. It is not a once off payment (but) it will be staggered (over years).”

He added the improvements could be used as collateral, but after they have been paid for.

“We are saying you can use the improvements on the farms as collateral if you pay for improvements.”

Shiri said even in the event the Government paid the compensation in advance “the principle will remain the same”. Last year, Government said it had paid $134 million to the white former farmers.

The Commercial Farmers Union confirmed the compensation recently, but pointed out that the majority rejected the compensation offers by Government — limited to just investments — demanding full payment encompassing land and improvements.

It said only those facing extreme financial hardships or medical problems accepted the offers, which were between 10 and 15 percent of professional valuations of their properties.

He said between 250 and 300 white former commercial farmers had received compensation, with the majority paid before dollarisation, the union said.

It is hoping the ongoing dialogue with the Government over compensation will succeed and help send a positive message to foreign investors over private property rights.

While former farmers are demanding full compensation for land and development, the law require payments for improvements only.

But full compensation would be made to farmers whose properties were covered Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements.

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