Party manifestos: Land and agriculture

LAND and agriculture are key sectors in Namibia – agriculture is the largest employer in the economy with over 50 000 people directly and indirectly employed.

It is thus no surprise that political parties devote a lot of space to this topic.APP The All People’s Party (APP) wants to fast-track land reform to ensure this is completed within 10 years. Those who need land most would be the immediate beneficiaries, receive training and financial support. ‘People with a passion to farm will enjoy top priority instead of weekend or hobby farmers. Namibians whose land was taken away like Herero, Nama-Damara and the San people and farmworkers would enjoy priority for resettlement. Communal land will be properly demarcated and registered so owners obtain non-transferable title deeds to be used as collateral for loans.’The APP wants to start big agriculture projects along the perennial rivers and near existing large dams in the country and extend existing ones.’It is our goal to ensure that any piece of arable land is used to the maximum,’ the APP manifesto says. Communal areas will be divided into agro-villages and each will receive modern agricultural facilities/implements and technology from an APP government.Agricultural science will be taught as a subject in all schools and grades. Individual households in urban and rural areas should start vegetable gardens as well as schools, churches and hospitals. The State will provide seeds and fertilisers. Each poor rural household will get a once-off allocation of dairy cattle, small stock and poultry to guarantee household food security. Fish farms will be set up at streams and rivulets and APP will also set up commercial crocodile farms CoDThe party says in its manifesto that that productive farmland should under no circumstances be turned into informal settlements or squatter camps, as is the case at present. CoD wants to modernise agricultural production in the communal areas to bring them into the mainstream agricultural economy. Intensive training of new farmers will take place under a CoD government and they will receive equipment for improved productivity and optimal land use. Unimpeded access to veterinary extension and financial support services will be provided, while the veterinary cordon fence will be shifted to the Angolan border. CoD wants good international co-operation with successful countries with climatic conditions similar to Namibia’s like the Middle East to learn from their agriculture experience. ‘Drawing lessons from Malawi’s excellent example of empowering the smallholder farmers by giving them free seeds and fertilisers to increase yields and food security, CoD would do something Namibia’s communal farmers and those on resettlement farms.’ DTAThe DTA will address foreign land ownership and the possession of more than one farm should be addressed by imposing diverse rates, duties and levies for such owners.The DTA is the only political party which has compiled a separate land policy document. The party would introduce production incentives for farmers and evaluate prospective farmers after a probation period before allocating land to them. Under a DTA government, ‘resettlement of farmers would be done on an economic basis,’ the party emphasises. The development of an agro-industry through modern crop production methods and local value addition is the way the DTA regards agriculture.NUDOThe Nudo party has devoted a long chapter in its manifesto on land and agriculture , saying ‘land has socio-economic, political and cultural meanings to the Namibian people.’ Nudo wants one comprehensive land law to facilitate tenure reforms and administration of communal and freehold farming land. It wants to introduce a process where subsistence farmers progress to small-scale and eventually to large-scale commercial farming. The party wants communal land to be common property ownership under land users’ associations, trusts or traditional authorities. Resettled beneficiaries on commercial farms should be productive and should not change these farms back into communal areas. The party is opposed to farm auctions ‘as it undermines efforts to redistribute lands to the landless.’A Nudo government would set in place a transparent land redistribution process and beneficiary selection. The current land policy ‘completely ignores that some indigenous communities has been dispossessed of land more than others,’ Nudo criticised. Once in power, Nudo would give priority to those who physically lost their ancestral land, without bearing claims to ancestral land. I will set up an N$100 million Drought Relieve Fund to assist rural farmers ‘immediately when drought starts and not after animals and people died of hunger.’Nudo advocates for the commercialisation and outsourcing of extension services to commercial agriculture in order to allow private operators to provide such service while Government can direct more human, financial and technological resources towards the communal agriculture.NDPThe National Democratic Party (NDP) led by Martin Lukato says in its manifesto it would step up funding for agriculture, should the party come to power. NDP would set up a fund ‘to assist farmers and all citizens who want to farm both commercially and communally.’ Such agricultural loans would create greater food security locally and enable food exports ‘to Africa and the entire world.’ NDP also plans to open more agricultural colleges in Namibia’s 13 regions.RDPThe RDP wants to set up a land commission to do a complete land audit for speedy and comprehensive land redistribution through ‘urgent and lawful land acquisition’ for redistribution to needy Namibians in order to reverse past social injustices and ensuring productive use of land. RDP would set up incubation and training programmes for resettled farmers for at least five years. Start up capital to emerging farmers will also be provided. In the case of livestock farming, resettlement farming units should be not smaller than 2 800 hectares ‘to ensure sustainability and prevent the erosion of productive farmland’. RPD would step up the implementation of the Green Scheme crop production projects and promote irrigation schemes to ‘ensure as much as possible year-round productivity.SWANULand acquisition must be based on the number of people who need land, Swanu says. ‘The acquisition must be assisted by benchmark tariffs that are set by farm regulatory bodies that should be established for that purpose. The benchmark tariffs must be based on Namibia agro-ecological zoning.’ Resettlement criteria should not be ambiguous and do not favour those who have opportunities of buying farms through other schemes. Swanu will also write off outstanding water debts rural people owe NamWater and Government. The party is vague on agriculture and only writes it will increase the ‘number and quality of (agricultural) development projects to reduce rural-urban migration.’SWAPOBack in 2004, the ruling Swapo party said it would consider to expropriate 192 commercial farms belonging to foreign owners, but only a few farms have been expropriated and mainly from Namibians. In the 2009 election manifesto, Swapo does not set concrete targets. Instead it wants to review all laws, policies and programmes with regard to land acquisition and redistribution ‘to ensure equitable land ownership programmes’. Swapo wants to prioritise increased food production and agro-processing through integrated financing schemes. It promises to accelerate an animal health improvement project so that the status of livestock becomes equalised throughout the country. It also wants to achieve that the northern communal areas can be declared free of the foot and mouth disease (FMD).UDFThe UDF wants to fast-track land reform, but peacefully and within the frame of the constitution. It will retain the willing buyer, willing seller principle and recognises ‘that not all Namibians are farmers, but everybody is in need of and deserves his/her own property.’ The UDF wants to reform existing land tenure systems in communal areas to empower rural fa
rmers so they can have title deeds and use these as collateral to obtain loans. The UDF does not believe that ‘only the State must own all land.’ The Namibia Movement for Democratic Change, Communist Party, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party of Namibia have not published manifestos.