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Crisis Report - Issue 232
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
October 25, 2013

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Land audit relevant to restore food security – Civil Society

The Global Political Agreement (GPA) which expired after the controversial 2013 harmonized elections left many critical and relevant clauses unimplemented such as the National Land Audit, as the country grapples with food insecurity.

The land audit, which the Ministry of Lands and Rural Settlement did not carry out, among other things that were neglected in the Agreement, had been recommended in Article V, which attempted to remedy the food insecurity emanating from Zimbabwe’s land invasions, and “ensure that land is used productively.”

Article 5.9 (a) of the agreement encouraged Government to “conduct a comprehensive, transparent and non-partisan land audit, during the tenure of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe, for the purposes of establishing accountability and eliminating multiple farm ownership.”

The clause was included after a land audit was deemed necessary following continued food shortages that have been blamed on disruptions in land ownership and use, which led to a plunge in productivity in the aftermath of Zimbabwe’s chaotic land reform program.

A Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) in a study led by government with the assistance of United Nations (UN) noted that 2.2 million people would only be saved from starvation by food aid from October 2013 to March 2014, there-by thrusting the issue of food security onto center stage. Amid these concerns, civil society has stated that there is need to take stock of the country’s “populist” land ownership and use patterns if productivity is to be quickly restored.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) Spokesman Thabani Nyoni said a land audit would bring a lot of things to light for planning around reviving the agricultural sector.

“One of the things the land audit does is that it does not only reveal who owns what,” Nyoni said. “It also gauges the level of land underutilization and what the utilized land is being utilized for. “It also shows what percentage of arable land is allocated to food crop production and what percentage is allocated to cash crop production.”

Nyoni said the information was necessary to inform agricultural policy as it relates to food security policies, arguing that currently there could be “more land owners than farmers” due to the politicized nature of the Zanu-PF led land grab.

Farai Mageza, coordinator of the Youth Agrarian Society said the “land owners” who were not real farmers could be having multiple farms, arguing there was need for “an integrated approach” in dealing with issues of land access and restoring of productivity.

“Assuming the land audit will be done to identify multiple farm ownership and idle land that will greatly contribute to food security,” Mageza said.

Similar concerns have been echoed by State Media where the current Sunday Mail issue (October 20-26) features a critique of the government’s agricultural policies. Garikari Mazara, in an article for the paper, condemned the Government’s inputs distribution for “creating a dependency syndrome”, urging government to fund industry for fertilizer and seeds.

“The current set-up, where the Government has decided to give almost every household free inputs, whilst noble and seen in some circles as populist, does not, in essence, tackle the food security crisis the nation is facing,” Mazara complained.

“In short, this intervention method fosters a dependency syndrome which we should be moving away from.”

The ruling party has also been accused of buying votes using agricultural inputs.

Mazara said the inputs schemes were falling prey to corrupt dealings of well-placed officials, with some of the poor household beneficiaries selling the inputs to address immediate needs.

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