EU committed to land reform

THE European Commission says it wants to avoid making the same mistake in Namibia as it did in Zimbabwe where the land reform process got out of hand, partly due to the refusal by some of its member states to make funds available.

European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Paul Nielson told The Namibian on Tuesday that the EC was about to commit several million euro to try and help Namibia achieve its goals of an orderly land resettlement and distribution programme. Nielson said the EC would do all in its power to make available funds that could be channelled into training resettled farmers and infrastructure development, but not directly funding the Namibian Government to acquire farms.”We have a certain – not that easy – experience somewhere else in the region.Some 10 years ago we could not decide as donors to fund the land schemes in Zimbabwe.It was not possible to sell the idea to our populations and it did not turn out well.I do not want to compare Namibia with Zimbabwe but we cannot shy away as donors,” Nielson said.He said the EC had set aside around 91 million euro (about N$691 million) for Namibian projects of which about 52 million euro (N$395 million) would go towards land reform, rural water supply, rural roads and other demand-driven components of rural development.”But we need to discuss these issues in a more detailed manner with the Namibian Government.From the outsiders’ point of view, it seems like not much money had been utilised in the past and we will use this week’s meetings to get more clarity on that,” he said.Nielson, accompanied by the Head of the European Delegation in Namibia, Antonius Bruesser, and other senior EC officials, toured Walvis Bay, Opuwo, Tsumeb and Grootfontein between Monday and Wednesday, before returning to Windhoek.During a meeting with members of the Namibia Agricultural Union, Namibia National Farmers’ Union and a new breed of emerging farmers at Tsumeb on Tuesday evening, Nielson said the European Community’s decision to shy away from Zimbabwe had led to a disaster that should not be repeated in Namibia.”No two countries are the same but we have an open mind on what can be done.We are keeping the options open.Land reform sounds pretty easy but it is not easy.We will discuss how we can make meaningful assistance,” he said.Commercial, communal and emerging farmers urged Commissioner Nielson to convince the EC to pump more into the training and infrastructure development of the farming sector.NAU Executive Director Sakkie Coetzee said the potential of the agricultural sector was being over-estimated.His colleague and fellow commercial farmer Arne Gressmann provided statistics claiming that the average annual turnover was about 35 per cent of the stocking rate.He said the operational costs were about 50 per cent or more of the gross income of farmers.That excluded the interest rate, rent, tax, capital expenditure and living costs.EC’s first councillor and head of rural development Erhard Loher said the 52 million euro would mainly go towards land reform, construction of rural roads, rural water supply, demand driven components such as HIV-AIDS in the agricultural sector, TB, malaria, and the management and implementation of those programmes.He said the proposed agreement on the 91 million euro would be discussed in Brussels later this year while the implementation is expected to take place next year.The programmes will be co-ordinated by the National Planning Commission.Nielson said the EC would do all in its power to make available funds that could be channelled into training resettled farmers and infrastructure development, but not directly funding the Namibian Government to acquire farms.”We have a certain – not that easy – experience somewhere else in the region.Some 10 years ago we could not decide as donors to fund the land schemes in Zimbabwe.It was not possible to sell the idea to our populations and it did not turn out well.I do not want to compare Namibia with Zimbabwe but we cannot shy away as donors,” Nielson said.He said the EC had set aside around 91 million euro (about N$691 million) for Namibian projects of which about 52 million euro (N$395 million) would go towards land reform, rural water supply, rural roads and other demand-driven components of rural development.”But we need to discuss these issues in a more detailed manner with the Namibian Government.From the outsiders’ point of view, it seems like not much money had been utilised in the past and we will use this week’s meetings to get more clarity on that,” he said.Nielson, accompanied by the Head of the European Delegation in Namibia, Antonius Bruesser, and other senior EC officials, toured Walvis Bay, Opuwo, Tsumeb and Grootfontein between Monday and Wednesday, before returning to Windhoek.During a meeting with members of the Namibia Agricultural Union, Namibia National Farmers’ Union and a new breed of emerging farmers at Tsumeb on Tuesday evening, Nielson said the European Community’s decision to shy away from Zimbabwe had led to a disaster that should not be repeated in Namibia.”No two countries are the same but we have an open mind on what can be done.We are keeping the options open.Land reform sounds pretty easy but it is not easy.We will discuss how we can make meaningful assistance,” he said.Commercial, communal and emerging farmers urged Commissioner Nielson to convince the EC to pump more into the training and infrastructure development of the farming sector.NAU Executive Director Sakkie Coetzee said the potential of the agricultural sector was being over-estimated.His colleague and fellow commercial farmer Arne Gressmann provided statistics claiming that the average annual turnover was about 35 per cent of the stocking rate.He said the operational costs were about 50 per cent or more of the gross income of farmers.That excluded the interest rate, rent, tax, capital expenditure and living costs.EC’s first councillor and head of rural development Erhard Loher said the 52 million euro would mainly go towards land reform, construction of rural roads, rural water supply, demand driven components such as HIV-AIDS in the agricultural sector, TB, malaria, and the management and implementation of those programmes.He said the proposed agreement on the 91 million euro would be discussed in Brussels later this year while the implementation is expected to take place next year.The programmes will be co-ordinated by the National Planning Commission.