Senior Reporter

More than 220 000 farms allocated to indigenous farmers during the Land Reform Programme are undergoing an extensive audit to flush out multiple farm owners and locate underutilised land under the third and final phase of the Comprehensive National Agricultural Land Audit.

The Zimbabwe Land Commission (ZLC) has deployed teams of auditors to probe and locate, among other things, abandoned, vacant and underutilised farms.

The $3,5 billion exercise will also expose multiple farm owners and those leasing farms without authority from the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development.

To date, more than 71 000 farms have been audited under two phases of the land audit.

Two years ago, President Mnangagwa ordered an expeditious completion of the land audit, which is expected to rationalise ownership and farm sizes.

The President has also undertaken to uproot all multiple farm owners and redistribute the farms to deserving Zimbabweans, including women and youths.

ZLC chairperson Commissioner Tendai Bare told The Sunday Mail that farms in 38 districts will be audited countrwide.

“The agricultural land audit was carried out in two phases. So far approximately 71 614 farms (24 percent) have been audited since inception against a total of approximately 300 000 subdivisions on agricultural land,” she said.

“Approximately 228 000 farms are still outstanding.

“Government has directed that the land audit programme be completed in 2022, which will be the final phase of agricultural land audit.

“At least 16 out of 54 agricultural districts (29 percent) have been completed to date.

“The scope of the audit is all agricultural land across all models and categories in these districts.”

She added: “The audit may reveal if there are abandoned vacant underutilised and multiple farm owners amongst other information captured via the audit instrument.”

Comm Bare said the exercise will be wholly funded by the Government.

“The activity budget we developed is showing that we require approximately $3,5 billion to complete audit of the remaining farms.

“This budget includes funding for both recurrent and capital expenditure for the purchase of tools of trade such as suitable vehicles, tablets for data collection and computers.”

Government disbursed $5 million for the first phase of the audit in 2018, while an additional $14,5 million was availed for the subsequent phase the following year.

The first audit unearthed gross underfunding of the agricultural sector and recommended the establishment of a Land and Agricultural Bank to facilitate funding for resettled farmers.

It is also recommended the establishment of an integrated Land Information Management System (LIMS) after investigations revealed widespread cases of fraudulent land allocations, rampant illegal leasing of land parcels and gross underutilisation, which is materially affecting agricultural output.

Comm Bare said she was encouraged by the timely implementation of ZLC’s recommendations.

“We are very grateful to His Excellency, the President Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa for articulating that the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) Land and Development Bank shall offer a comprehensive agricultural finance recovery programme which will go a long way in capacitating farmers to make them productive through increased investment on farms and contribute to economic growth.”

There are over 200 000 land applicants on the Government’s books.