Farmers discuss land issues No lack of farms offered to government In drought-stricken areas farmers are pleading with the government to buy their land but there is no money available for that. With President Hage Geingob at the helm farmers in Namibia are confident that their land will not simply be expropriated or taken away.This was the view of the president of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU), Ryno van der Merwe, at its 70th congress.
He however added that this status can change any day as the farming community does not know what the future holds.
“After 26 years of land reform it has not been a problem, but things can change tomorrow. However, with our president we are not scared that our farms will simply be taken away,” said Van der Merwe.
It was pointed out that land reform is not without its challenges. Although land is being offered to the government to buy there seems to be no funding available to buy the land on offer.
Currently more than 9.2 million hectares of land are owned by previously disadvantaged people in Namibia while 3.1 million hectares are owned by resettlement farmers.
Statistics by the Namibia Agricultural Union show that there are 37.4 million hectares of commercial land in Namibia, of which the previously advantaged own more than 27.8 million hectares.
Furthermore the government owns 122 897 hectares of commercial land while the rest of the land, 259 252 hectares, is owned by other institutions such as NamWater and NamPower.
The government has set a target of acquiring 15 million hectares of agricultural land by 2020, 10 million hectares through Agribank''s Affirmative Action Loan Scheme and 5 million hectares through the National Resettlement programme.
Van der Merwe said that it should be noted that if government reaches its target of 15 million hectares the process of commercial land reform should end.
The matter of expropriating land was also discussed with detail given on the regulations that will be used for the expropriation of agricultural land.
Frank Heger, who gave a briefing about the expropriation regulations, said there will be very little chance that Namibians who own land can be expropriated under the scoring process that has been put in place.
He further said that statements are being made that not enough land is being offered to the government to buy, but that is not the case.
He added that people are also saying that the willing-buyer, willing- seller concept is not working.
“To say this you need evidence and I would not propose that the concept should be changed.”
According to Heger in the drought-affected areas people are pleading that the government should buy their land and therefore it is not a case that land is not being offered.
Van der Merwe agreed and said the government does not have enough funds available to buy the land offered and there is actually an oversupply of farms being offered.
He said with this oversupply it is not a priority for government to expropriate, because they do not have money. The only regions where there is not really a supply of land being offered are Khomas, Omaheke and Kunene. Van der Merwe said one of the biggest success stories for Namibia was the land conference held in 1991 where consensus decisions were made.
“This was what formed part of our stability, however the government has the right to evaluate where problem areas are and where they have made faults and to see how the resettlement process is going.”
He stressed that it is therefore very important that farmers attend regional conferences that will be held before the second national land conference next year.
“There will be pressure especially with regard to ancestral rights and we will provide you with the proper documentation to prepare yourself.”
ELLANIE SMIT