An official of the government who holds a top position has said that the government would soon send letters of withdrawal to anybody who is discovered to have been underutilizing farms that were assigned via the Land Reform Programme.
The Land Commission’s audit report was given to President Mnangagwa in November of last year, and the recommendations included within it are now in the process of being implemented.
The results of the audit, which were commissioned by the Second Republic as part of efforts to guarantee that all arable land is completely productive, have not yet been made public.
The Minister of Justice, Legal Affairs, and Parliamentary Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi, indicated that letters of withdrawal will be sent to farmers who were not productive during a question and answer session that took place in Parliament the previous week.
While Minister Ziyambi was replying to a question from Cde Vimbai Mutokonyi (Zanu PF), a lawmaker from Marondera East, who wanted to know the government’s stance on underutilised farms, Minister Ziyambi was also responding to the question.
In response to the Honourable Member’s query, I would like to express my gratitude. There are some individuals who have acquired farms but are not making use of them. A land audit was carried out by the Land Commission in order to ascertain the current state of affairs on each and every property. You will discover that letters of withdrawal will arrive since individuals were granted farms to be productive, not to merely have homesteads.
Minister Ziyambi underlined Government’s commitment to ensure that agricultural land was put to its greatest beneficial use. The audit was aimed at coming up with a Land Information Management System (LIMS) which would manage difficulties such include multiple farm ownerships and duplicate allocations.
LIMS saw the auditing of 254 538 farms nationally looking at land allocation, distribution of beneficiaries by farm types, where they originate from, investment made by the beneficiaries, production, land management, environmental management and provision of social services.
Among other topics in the scope were concerns of extension services and where farmers were obtaining knowledge in farming, methodologies and business models they employ, leasing, joint ventures, tenure security and enjoyment of basket of rights.
After submitting the report to President Mnangagwa, ZLC chair, Commissioner Tendai Bare said LIMS was a database built by auditing agricultural property owned in the State which excluded community areas and this was a Constitutional obligation.
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“It was quite a bit of double allocations and we are dealing with it through the dispute resolution, but I think with this database we will minimise double allocations because before a piece of land is allocated, its status will be established. So truly, this land audit will allow the government to undertake a lot of cleaning up where it is necessary,” she said.
The LIMS, added Commissioner Bare, will also solve concerns of various farm ownerships.
Up to 260 000 individuals on the waiting list for farms are likely to benefit as the Government starts to reallocate abandoned or underutilised properties.
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