Windhoek — The Namibian government is considering ways to improve its land-reform programme, which has not only been slow, but has also had a negative impact on agricultural production.
Since independence in 1990, only 10,000 people have been resettled under the government's land programme, which allows a willing-seller, willing-buyer arrangement or expropriation.
In many cases of resettlement the new owners have been unable to operate the farms commercially, while the government has acknowledged that a lack of skills, equipment and the sub-leasing of allocated land has affected agricultural productivity.
"We have had some 240,000 applications since resettlement started about a decade ago," said Jerry Ekandjo, Minister of Land and Resettlement. "We need a central computerised list, as many people reapply for resettlement each year."
According to Ekandjo, "We are aware that many people have applied for land seven or eight years ago and are still waiting. The process is lengthy, slow and frustrating for the beneficiaries." It was now clear that "the government may not settle everyone" he acknowledged.
In a recent study, 'An analysis of the Namibian Commercial Land Reform Process', the Namibia-based Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), an NGO that provides legal aid to the community, pointed out that the country had the potential to create its own 'unique' land-reform programme. "For example, Namibia has a relatively low population, enough European donors willing to support the land-reform process, co-operative white farmers and, arguably, enough time to not have to succumb to political pressure, as happened in Zimbabwe's disastrous land-reform process."
All Namibians disadvantaged prior to independence in 1990 are eligible for resettlement, irrespective of their economic status. In terms of the national resettlement policy, the primary target beneficiaries are members of the San ethnic group, ex-liberation war combatants, people who lived in exile during apartheid, displaced persons, people with disabilities and those living in "overcrowded communal areas".
Each year government sets aside about US$7.7 million to buy commercial farms on the willing-seller, willing-buyer principle, which means all farms for sale must first be offered to the ministry. If the ministry finds the deal unsuitable, it issues a waiver allowing the land to be sold on the market. Between April 2005 and March 2006 the government spent about $3.3 million - almost half the total allocation - to resettle 150 families on 19 farms, three of which were expropriated.
"We issue waivers for about 80 percent of the farms offered to us - we only buy 20 percent of them," Ekandjo told parliament last month, explaining why the ministry had not spent the full annual allocation.
A conference on resettlement last week in the capital, Windhoek, highlighted many of the policy's shortcomings. Since the land-reform programme started, the government has acquired some 150 commercial farms, covering over 900,000ha. Pressure has been mounting over the slow pace of redistribution, but the government has maintained that too few properties were offered for sale at reasonable prices under the willing-buyer, willing-seller arrangement.
The LAC study pointed out that although the government had increased the allocation for acquiring land for resdistrubition, it had failed to increase investment in technical services such as land evaluation, which has slowed down the process.
Beyond the difficulties some landless Namibians faced in getting their hands on commercial properties, the government has acknowledged the poor performance of some resettled farmers.
Dudu Murorua, governor of the Kunene Region in northwestern Namibia, said many resettled people were "just idling" on formerly thriving commercial farms. "Others illegally sub-lease their portion and earn cash in this way, and some just open a little shop in a shack on their allocated land," Murorua told the resettlement conference. "We need agricultural production, but that is hardly taking place."
Similar problems were raised by Theo Eiseb, governor of the north-central Otjozondjupa Region. "The period between a farm being vacated by the commercial farmer and the occupation by resettlement beneficiaries is too long," he noted. "In the meantime, valuable farm equipment gets stolen and people living on communal land just move in and graze their cattle there."
Eiseb added that "resettled people mostly continue subsistence farming, and that does not fulfill the government's aim of commercial production".
Agricultural extension services, including training and information on new techniques and technologies, are provided by extension officers, each of whom covers 250 farmers. But these services are geared to meet the needs of communal farmers and few commercial landowners are aware of them.
The LAC study suggested using radio broadcasts to tell farmers in remote corners of the country about the services. It also recommended that support for resettled farmers should be extended beyond the existing five years to 10 or 15 years. The LAC research team, which visited several resettlement projects, found that five years was inadequate to help farmers become commercially viable.
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An alternative to the government's resettlement programme is the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS), which allows individual black Namibians to buy commercial farms on preferential loan terms. Over 700 properties were bought by black farmers under this scheme up to 2005, according to the latest annual report of the Agricultural Bank of Namibia.
"The redistribution of land goes quicker this way, rather than through resettlement," said Raimar von Hase, president of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU). But the LAC study also found that in many instances the farmers who acquired land under AALS had not been able to keep up their loan repayments. Farmers also tended to use income from the farm to pay off their loans, rather than investing in the farm to improve production. The study recommended that government provide subsidies to help improve infrastructure on the farms.
Established farmers should be approached and encouraged to help mentor the newcomers, said the LAC study, because there was "sufficient goodwill and willingness", which had produced results in at least two of Namibia's regions.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
