The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure Senior Reporter —
THE European Union has finally accepted the reality and irreversibility of the historical land reform programme as the bloc now wants it concluded so that Government can work towards the stabilisation of the land tenure so that beneficiaries can invest on and borrow against it.
EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Ambassador Phillipe Van Damme, said land tenure was one of the structural challenges emanating from the land reform programme, which Government should now focus on in order for the agrarian reform to have a significant and sustainable impact.
Ambassador Van Damme made the remarks at the provincial dialogue meeting under the auspices of the EU funded Inclusive Policy Dialogue for Social Development Project (IPDSD).
The dialogue organised by the Zimbabwe Farmers Union and attended by farmers from Buhera, Nyanga, Mutasa and Mutare districts, offers opportunity to farmers to discuss issues of common interest and come up with a common position to defend their interests at operational and policy level.
“Admittedly, agricultural production, productivity and competitiveness have fallen drastically, but nonetheless, agriculture preserves its huge potential to contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.
“Government is trying to ease the administrative procedures and burdens to do business, but more structural problems have to be addressed as well if we want these laudable measures to have a significant and sustainable impact,” said Ambassador Van Damme.
Ambassador Van Damme said the cost of production, inclusive of public utilities and services, water and energy supply, access to information, have to come down.
“Farmers and other stakeholders in various agricultural value chains need to have access to affordable credit, adapted to their seasonal and to their medium term investment needs to enhance agricultural productivity.
The problem of security of tenure is fundamental.
There is an urgent need not only to conclude the land reform as Government has repeatedly said, but also to stabilise land tenure, through ownership, long term lease arrangements or traditional communal land management systems to a point that it makes land worth investing on and a traceable asset that can be mobilised in case of need as collateral for bank credit,” said Ambassador Van Damme.
He also challenged farmers unions to assist Government in reorganising the agricultural sector after the land reform programme.
“Farmers unions can and should play a critical role to rebuild value chains by bringing the various stakeholders together, transform them in shareholders of their value chains by sharing infrastructure and recreate the scale required to make them competitive again,” he said.
The discussion focused on access to agricultural finance and produce marketing where farmers concurred that the issue of land tenure must be finalised so that they can use it to access loans from banks.
Farmers said land tenure, as an underlying policy, was a disservice to the agriculture sector. ZFU director, Mr Paul Zakaria, said focus should be on finding solutions to the problems.
“Farmers are saying land does not have a value, you cannot borrow against it.
“It is important to interrogate our land tenure system because farmers need to borrow and the voice of farmers should be heard,” said Mr Zakaria.
