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Govt repossesses A2 farms
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
February 04, 2008

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802040874.html

Government has repossessed at least 1 449 A2 farms countrywide where no production was taking place as part of renewed efforts to ensure that all land is productively used.

Minister of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement Cde Didymus Mutasa last week strongly warned new farmers not producing that they risked having their land offers withdrawn.

Repossessed farms will be re-allocated to farmers in need of land.

"Government is repossessing all vacant and unutilised A2 farms and we are not going back on this exercise. We will withdraw the offers and allocate the farms to new deserving applicants," Cde Mutasa said.

He said Government was repossessing the farms following a national land audit carried out last year, which showed that some farms were vacant while others were not being utilised and some had not been taken up at all.

Cde Mutasa said Government wanted those allocated farms to maximise productivity and ensure food security.

"What must be known is that many Zimbabweans are keen to utilise the land profitably. So if someone is not utilising the land, then they will not deserve it and it will be allocated to somebody else," he said.

Cde Mutasa said according to the audit report, Mashonaland East Province had the highest number of farms that were repossessed with 481 while the lowest were in Matabeleland North with 21.

On under-utilised farms, the minister said Government had tasked district and provincial land committees to look into the problems the farmers were facing.

He said Government would then consider the submissions by the farmers before repossessing them. Cde Mutasa said Government would also continue assisting farmers with inputs and implements to enhance agricultural production.

He dismissed claims that Government was reversing the land reform programme and warned defiant land owners who were refusing to comply with the Government directive to move from land designated for compulsory acquisition for resettlement.

"Also we want to say there is no going back on our policy on land. Let me warn those landowners refusing to move from the designated farms that Government will take the necessary procedures to have them evicted in terms of the law," Cde Mutasa said.

In Masvingo 50 model A2 farms were repossessed. Masvingo provincial administrator Cde Felix Chikovo last week said the majority of the 50 farms were either being under-utilised or had not been taken up at all.

Most of the farms were in Gutu, Mwenezi and Chiredzi districts.

"We have so far repossessed 50 farms that were allocated under the A2 scheme following land audits that we carried out and most of the farms whose offer letters we withdrew were being under-utilised or had not been taken up at all.

"We made recommendations with the provincial technical land committees leading to the repossession of the farms and we are in the process of working out how best the repossessed land can be used," he said.

Cde Chikovo said that among the proposals they were considering was consolidation or amalgamation of several plots into bigger single units, which could become viable for future recipients to operate.

This followed revelations that some of the under-utilised plots or those that had not been taken up were too small to operate viably. He said the majority of the repossessed farms would be re-allocated to about 5 000 landless people irregularly settled in Masvingo.

It has also emerged that sugarcane farmers who were allocated plots under the model A2 scheme in Chiredzi were contemplating quitting producing the crop on the basis that the plots were too small to grow the crop viably. The Masvingo provincial land committee late last year applied for 150 hectares of land at Nuanetsi Ranch in Chiredzi amid reports that the province had run out of farms to resettle landless families. However, after carrying out land audits late last year, it emerged that there were a lot of under-utilised farms that could be allocated to the landless.

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