Over 571 resettled farms, no tracking of progress

Since 1990, the government, through its land reform programme under the lands ministry, has acquired 571 farms, but it is not clear how well or badly resettled farmers are faring, nor the income they can generate from their farming activities.

These are part of the findings by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in its recently released special focus report on land reform.

According to the report, the 571 farms stretch over 34 million hectares (ha) and were bought at a cost of N$2,3 billion.

The state had indicated that it was targeting acquiring 5 million ha by 2020.

So far 69% or 3,4 million ha have already been acquired, meaning only 1,6 million ha are yet to be acquired in order to reach this goal on agricultural commercial land acquisition.

Although having fallen short of this target, other pressing matters also persist, said IPPR.

“No data seems to exist on what is actually being produced on the farms that have changed hands and this applies to both the affirmative action loan scheme and the national resettlement programme,” reads the report.

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Jona Musheko, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform spokesperson, however, said the ministry was fully aware of what is happening at the resettlement farms.

“That is why we initiated the review of the national resettlement policy. The reviewed policy is meant to address all challenges that were found, including those that were sourced by/through stakeholder consultations,” he said.

In another instance, the ministry’s executive director, Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata, had said among the issues identified at the farms were was a mismatch of the policy and criteria for the allocation of acquired land, poor agricultural productivity on allocated land and the absence or inadequate pre- and post-settlement support.

She also listed the lack of effective monitoring and evaluation of the resettlement process and poor stakeholder involvement and coordination, as part of the challenges faced by resettled communities.

Nghituwamata said this new revised policy would ensure that the resettlement programme is fair and transparent.

“The main goal of the policy is to ensure that the land acquired is fairly and equitably allocated and sustainably utilised in order to improve the quality of life of the beneficiaries,” she said.

IPPR said available data shows that a total 5 458 beneficiaries were resettled: 2 188 males, 1 485 females and 30 juristic entities.

Taking the numbers on the NRP at face value implies that the average cost of land purchase amounts to N$436 460 per beneficiary.

Email: lazarus@namibian.com.na
Twitter: @Lasarus_A

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