Lands Minister meets farmers to explain Govt policy

LANDS Minister Alpheus !Naruseb held three consultative meetings with the farming community during the past week.

The first meeting was held on Wednesday at Outjo. About 100 farmers attended this meeting, according to the latest newsletter of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU).The second meeting was attended by 65 farmers at Tsumeb and the third meeting was held on Friday at Mariental and was attended by about 50 farmers.Feedback received from the meetings was that they were constructive and that Minister !Naruseb, his team and the farmers had the confidence to talk openly about land reform in Namibia. ‘Heckling questions such as expropriation of agricultural land, the current land prices, expansion possibilities for existing farmers as well as cooperation between existing and resettled farmers with regard to inter alia veld fires were discussed,’ the newsletter said. ‘It seems that there is a mutual understanding for the viewpoints of Government on the one side and land owners on the other side.’ Informal discussions were also held with the Minister and his team about specific problems in certain areas.