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The Herald, 16 April 2012
THE Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement will this year conduct a farm-by-farm audit to establish the extent of the challenges resettled farmers are facing.

Acting Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement Minister Joseph Made told Parliament recently that the verification programme will help Government come up with policies for resettled farmers.

To date, a total of 145 775 A1 and 18 289 A2 farmers have benefited from land reform.

“In its day-to-day operations, the ministry has established that farmers are facing various challenges which interfere with farm productivity and farm utilisation.

“Financial support to farming operations is very limited from financial institutions,” Minister Made said.

He said farmers faced various challenges from erratic power supply to inadequate extension services and poor infrastructure.

Minister Made said the farm-by-farm verification programme will replace a larger land audit due to lack of finances.

“These are issues which would have been captured in the proposed national land audit had funding been provided for its implementation. In the absence of funding for a larger land audit, the ministry plans to carry verification assessments on a farm-by-farm basis.

“If resources are availed to the ministry, the plan is to do verification assessments on a farm-by-farm basis to establish specific challenges per farmer, land utilisation and productivity trends per farm and assess land uptake per far,” he said.

LESSONS FOR TODAY
 Land audit should take a holistic approach that not only seeks to find underutilised land, but also seek to capacitate land owners with required resources

A proper and thorough land audit will not only ensure equitable land distribution, but will also enhance productivity by ensuring that all farm land is utilised accordingly.

Farm-by-farm assessments also ensure that Government gets proper information, which will help them when executing national programmes like Command Agriculture

The Zimbabwe Land Commission (ZLC), which recently completed the first phase of the audit involving more than 18 000 farmers, has unearthed gross underfunding of the agricultural sector and is now pushing for the establishment of a Land and Agricultural Bank to facilitate funding for resettled farmers.

The aim of land audit is not only to target multiple farm owners, but also to identify potential farmers and source funding to help them.

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