LEADERS of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) under its president Raimar von Hase, the chairman of the Livestock Producers' Organisation Ryno van der Merwe and NAU Executive Manager Sakkie Coetzee visited the new Lands Minister, Alfeus Naruseb, last week.

"Minister Naruseb emphasised that he strongly supports consultations and that he wanted a follow-up visit by the NAU soon.

"He expressed his gratitude towards the NAU for the assistance offered to emerging farmers in order to let the resettlement programme progress successfully and also requested the NAU to point out any hitches in the current resettlement policy," the NAU stated in its weekly newsletter.

"This includes among others the length of time [from] when a farm has been purchased until resettlement takes place, the selection of resettlement farmers and the size of land allocated to resettlement farmers."

Von Hase informed Naruseb about NAU's views on land reform and that the organisation had already drafted three reports since 2003 about a framework for successful land reform and guidelines for expropriations.

The NAU had developed a model on how farms could be categorised so that land could be used productively.

The NAU delegation also requested the Ministry to equip resettlement farmers with basic fire-fighting equipment.

Resettlement farmers should also be involved in the actions of local farmers' associations, they said.

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