Govt harmonises land valuation for AA and resettlement farmers

GOVERNMENT will embark on a major shift in its valuation of farmland for resettlement and for previously disadvantaged Namibians, who can obtain preferential loans from AgriBank to buy commercial farms.

Cabinet resolved that the official carrying capacity figures for livestock on farms as given by the Ministry of Agriculture should be used as the basis to determine carrying capacity and stocking rates for farms to be valued. Government had so far not been clear on its criteria for buying farms on the willing buyer, willing seller system to resettle landless Namibians or for expropriation.Neither were the farm valuation criteria of AgriBank clear.Cabinet further approved that AgriBank and the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement should adopt that model for the valuation of agricultural land for the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme and for the acquisition of land for resettlement.”It is important to ensure that new entrants into the agricultural sector do not fall victim to inflated farm prices,” said Information Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.”It is therefore, necessary that agricultural land valuations reflect fair market values.These must be linked to the capacity of the land to produce agricultural products and ensure that a return can be realised from the proper marketing of such products,” the Minister said at a media briefing on Tuesday.A fair market value for farmland could be achieved, provided that valuations were conducted on a professionally sound basis, she added.It is against this background that Cabinet adopted the income capitalisation approach as the appropriate method to be used in conjunction with the other methods of valuation, especially the sales comparison approach with respect to the valuation of farmland for the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme and the land reform programme.The Ministry of Lands and Resettlement must now amend the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act of 1995 to bring it in line with the new valuation approach.”In emerging economies, where land ownership has been a subject of political and economic debate, land is used as an instrument of economic empowerment and poverty alleviation,” Minister Nandi-Ndaitwah said.Government had so far not been clear on its criteria for buying farms on the willing buyer, willing seller system to resettle landless Namibians or for expropriation.Neither were the farm valuation criteria of AgriBank clear.Cabinet further approved that AgriBank and the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement should adopt that model for the valuation of agricultural land for the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme and for the acquisition of land for resettlement.”It is important to ensure that new entrants into the agricultural sector do not fall victim to inflated farm prices,” said Information Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.”It is therefore, necessary that agricultural land valuations reflect fair market values.These must be linked to the capacity of the land to produce agricultural products and ensure that a return can be realised from the proper marketing of such products,” the Minister said at a media briefing on Tuesday.A fair market value for farmland could be achieved, provided that valuations were conducted on a professionally sound basis, she added.It is against this background that Cabinet adopted the income capitalisation approach as the appropriate method to be used in conjunction with the other methods of valuation, especially the sales comparison approach with respect to the valuation of farmland for the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme and the land reform programme.The Ministry of Lands and Resettlement must now amend the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act of 1995 to bring it in line with the new valuation approach.”In emerging economies, where land ownership has been a subject of political and economic debate, land is used as an instrument of economic empowerment and poverty alleviation,” Minister Nandi-Ndaitwah said.