In the wave of efforts to encourage and support more “responsible” land investments, one aspect has been largely overlooked: are governments equipped with the legal and technical support needed to effectively negotiate and conclude investment contracts that lead to responsible outcomes?
In the wave of efforts to encourage and support more “responsible” land investments, one aspect has been largely overlooked: are governments equipped with the legal and technical support needed to effectively negotiate and conclude investment contracts that lead to responsible outcomes?
One of the new government’s major policy priorities has to be to get agriculture moving as a motor of growth. The long-running issue of outstanding compensation payments has meant that international donors and financiers have not engaged with land reform areas, missing out on supporting major development opportunities.
Zimbabwe today has an agrarian structure made up of small, medium and large farms, all under different forms of land ownership. A landscape once dominated by 4,500 large-scale commercial farmers is now populated by about 145,000 smallholder households, occupying 4.1 million hectares, and around 23,000 medium-scale farmers on 3.5 million hectares.
Drawing on 18 years of research, offers these 10 priorities for getting agriculture moving again: land tenure, finance, partnerships, government loans, access to marketing, value addition, smart support systems, irrigation, mechanisation, local economic development.
Vital that the new Land Commission looks at the range of land issues in the round. Need comprehensive district by district approach, attuned to local circumstances and flexible. Enormous challenge to recreate a land administration system. Outlines vital elements and how they must work together.
Zimbabwe’s economy grew by 0.7 percent in 2016 despite the combined effect of the El Nino drought and domestic financial turmoil. The drought reduced agricultural output and increased food prices towards the end of the year, despite the government’s efforts to boost production and stabilize prices.
Land reform has generated a range of disputes including overlapping boundaries, double occupations, competing authorities etc. Lists areas in which potential disputes arise.
With the start of a commodity boom cycle in the early 2000s, many resource-rich countries reaped benefits as prices for commodities increased over the ensuing decade. Many of these countries see mining as a central element of modernising their economies, and actively promote investment in the mining and extractives sector.
Covers background, property grabbing from widows, legal standards on the rights of widows, recommendations.
