Produce or leave

The agriculture ministry has warned unproductive resettled farmers that their land could be transferred to those that will produce.

The government has taken action to improve poor productivity on resettlement farms through capacity building and developing skills among resettlement farmers.

In a first for Namibia, a strategy and programme to assist resettled and Affirmative Loan Scheme farmers has been created.

“While wishing to address past injustices the government has no desire to see agricultural productivity fall as this forms an important component of the national economy. The change of ownership should not result in making land less productive,” the report says.

The Capacity Building Strategy for Resettlement and Affirmative Action Loan Scheme Farmers was triggered by government's realisation that both the resettlement programme and the affirmative action loan scheme were not yielding results. According to agriculture deputy minister Anna Shiweda, the poor performance of these initiatives was mainly attributed to lack of farming capacity of the beneficiaries and the inadequate and unstructured support services offered by various stakeholders.

She said the cabinet decided to transfer the Farmers Support Programme that had been implemented by the land reform ministry to the agriculture ministry.





“The objective of this transfer is to facilitate and improve the provision of services such as extension and training services to these specific farmers,” she said.

According to the strategy, drastic measures are needed to improve productivity on resettlement farms. The strategy is aimed at building the required skills of resettled farmers.

These include the beneficiaries of the National Resettlement Programme, Group Resettlement Schemes and the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme.

Targets were set for the redistribution by 2020 of five million hectares under the National Resettlement Programme and Group Resettlement Scheme and ten million hectares under the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme.

To date 5 231 families have been resettled: 3 000 families on 55 farms through the Group Resettlement Programme; and 2 000 families on 450 farms through the National Resettlement Programme. Working on an average of 5 988 hectares per farm it is estimated that the government has acquired about 3.023 million hectares (505 farms) and there is a shortage of 1.976 million hectares.

According to the strategy an estimated 330 farms still need to be purchased and an estimated 1 500 families are to be resettled in the future.

Furthermore the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme has enabled 700 farmers to acquire 4.5 million hectares. In addition 2.5 million hectares have been acquired by previously disadvantaged Namibians on a commercial basis. A total of 243 000 Namibians potentially qualify for resettlement under the original criteria that were, members of the San, ex-fighters of PLAN, SWAFT and Koevoet, war refugees, people living with disabilities and inhabitants of overpopulated communal areas.

“In the worst case where it becomes apparent that a farmer is not able to use land productively a recommendation should be made to the lands ministry to reallocate the farm,” the report adds.

Farmers will also be monitored periodically to see whether their skills are being utilised effectively.



Training not sufficient

Resettled farmers currently get one week of training when they get their allotment letter, in comparison to beneficiaries of the Green Scheme who go through up to a year of training. It is recommended that the pre-settlement training be extended to at least two months but preferably six months.

“For the past few years the government and our stakeholders in the agricultural sector have been working jointly and tirelessly towards the improvement of farming business on resettlement farms. These concerted efforts are all geared towards helping farmers to realise their envisaged goal of improved livelihood,” said Shiweda. Agriculture producers like any other enterprises face a number of risks in maintaining a profitable enterprise.

The representative of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Kiki Gbeho, said throughout the rural world, land provides a primary source of income for food security, cultural identity and shelter.

It is therefore important that farmers on such land are capacitated to produce enough food for themselves and the country at large.

“As you may be aware, this strategy to build capacity among resettled farmers came about as a result of government's concern about the low productivity levels of resettled farmers,” she said.

To address this issue the government sought technical support from the FAO to assist in the development of a strategy that would guide interventions. She said there are many other issues that require redress to stimulate increased agricultural productivity among resettled farmers and to create an enabling environment for agricultural development in the country.

For example, the current extension officer to farmer ratio is relatively high at 1:2 000. Therefore FAO is working with Namibia's extension services with financial assistance of the EU in piloting a cellphone-based learning and information-sharing system. The FAO recommends that there be one extension officer for every 500 farmers.



ELLANIE SMIT