From George Maponga in Masvingo
Government has announced plans to improve payment of land rentals by ensuring beneficiaries of the land reform programme subscribe to a mandatory stop order facility for swift payment of their arrears upon delivery of their crops.

Under the facility, farmers will sign stop order forms that will enable Government to deduct their land rental arrears when they receive payment for grain deliveries to companies such as GMB.

The move comes amid concerns within Government corridors over non payment of rentals, amid reports that less than 50 percent of land reform beneficiaries countrywide were paying them annually.

Land rental was introduced by Government in 2015, with model A2 beneficiaries paying $3 per hectare annually, and another $2 per hectare per annum unit tax.

Model A1 beneficiaries pay $10 per annum as land rental, and $5 unit tax over the same period. The money is collected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Rural Resettlement, which forwards some of the unit tax to Treasury for onward distribution to the respective local authorities.

Agriculture, Lands and Rural Resettlement Deputy Minister Davis Marapira recently said Government wanted to introduce stop order facilities for farmers to easily pay their land rentals.

“We are devising several strategies to improve payment of land rentals because farmers have not been paying their dues to Government for whatever reason,” he said.

“We are planning to make it a point that farmers sign stop order forms which will enable Government to collect land rental arrears upon delivery of crops by the farmers to wherever they will be selling.

“Farmers who deliver their crops to GMB will sign the stop order forms and Government’s land rental dues will be deducted when they receive payment.’’

Deputy Minister Marapira said the stop order facility, to recover outstanding land rentals, will also be used on cotton and sugarcane farmers among others who owe Government thousands of dollars in arrears.

“We will keep on refining our methods of recovering Government arrears from farmers because they need to pay for us to monitor and supervise operations in resettlement areas.

“Those who dig in and continue refusing to settle their land rentals, risk using their land because we need the money to finance a number of activities in resettlement areas, which Government cannot do considering its dire financial state,” he said.

Government has been urging farmers to settle their land rentals with part of the money going towards developing infrastructure such as roads in resettlement areas.

When the rentals were first introduced, Government anticipated to raise at least $20 million annually, with part of the money going towards carrying out the land audit.

It was also envisaged that proceeds from the rentals were going to build a war chest required to compensate white former commercial farmers who lost their land after the advent of the land reform programme, which sought to redress colonial injustices.