The ManicaPost
Mukachana Hanyani
THE land reform programme which brought on board new farmers countrywide has started yielding commendable results with the tobacco and maize farmers mapping the restoration of Zimbabwe as the food basket of SADC. The success story of the land reform is no longer a secret as it will stand up the time and be remembered by generations to come.
Farmers should take President Mugabe’s advice seriously and utilise their land effectively not to sublet it to anyone whom they deem a better farmer than they are.
The President’s advice on farmers clearly makes it prudent for the country to re-evaluate who the real farmers are.
The new farmers should have zeal and will power to carry on with their farming obligations as this sector can help cut down the fluctuating unemployment levels.
The fact that the armed struggle was waged because our nationalists wanted to see the equitable land redistribution in the country, should stand as a motivating factor to the new farmers so that they utilise their land effectively.
Every farmer who got either A1 or A2 farm model should applaud those who sacrificed their lives in the armed struggle as it capacitated them to be landowners. It should be taken into consideration that owning a piece of land bestows some dignity on an individual. Hence everyone with a piece of land must treasure its possession by desisting from subletting.
Every farmer should value his land in the same manner they would treasure their wives. Who could sublet his wife to someone? Land should by no means be leased to anyone; instead, one needs to intensify productivity by utilising their pieces of land in honour of the sacrificed lives. It does not make sense for someone to get land and then sublet it to the adversary individuals who were against the equitable land redistribution.
This simply shows some people acquired the land out of greed and selfish ambitions. While it is not a crime to lease land to anyone who has farming expertise it should be noted that the country cannot be fed sufficiently by cell phone farmers.
Those with no farming expertise shouldn’t cling onto land for subletting purposes; rather it should be forfeited back to the State.
Quite a number of Zimbabweans still need land hence the forfeited land can quench their need. The Government as the prerogative owner of every land in the country has the right to monitor its land utilisation.
President Mugabe is spot on by advising all farmers to engage in serious farming as they are tasked to produce food for the nation.
Farmers who recently benefited from the A1 settlement permits in Chifundi Farm, Makonde District, by President Mugabe should lead by example as they were accorded total ownership of their land. The settlements permits by the President will see all A1 farmers around the country getting guarantee of land ownership rights, tenure of security on their land as well as borrowing powers from financial institutions.
This will encourage the new farmers to engage full swing farming activities without fear of being evicted from their pieces of land. Subletting of such land is a betrayal to President Mugabe and departed nationalists like Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo, who together championed the land reform programme from its beginning to where it is now. As such, people should respect and appreciate the good work that our nationalists, both living and the departed, did in fighting for the freedom of this country so that everyone can benefit from the land.
Farmers should set the ball rolling by enrolling in agricultural colleges to enhance their farming knowledge. Agricultural colleges dotted around the country can play a pivotal role in acquainting the new farmer with requisite knowledge on how to manage their farms. So it is now in the farmers’ pot to make sure that they utilise their land well as they begin new life with their Settlement Permits which the President launched recently in Makonde, in the hope that they would get security of tenure on their land ownership rights as well as having borrowing power of loans from financial institutions.
With good and energetic farmers Zimbabwe could find its way back to the breadbasket of the region if not Africa.
Mukachana Hanyani is a Harare-based political analyst.
