Give resettled farmers title: banker
by Naume Muza Tuesday 04 October 2011
KADOMA — Zimbabwe’s government should give title to black villagers
resettled on former white commercial farms newly to pave way for banks to
lend to the new farmers against their properties, one of the country’s
leading bankers has said.
TN Bank founder Tawanda Nyambirai said only when farmers hold title that is
transferable to other parties would they be able to use it as collateral to
secure loans from banks they need to boost production.
The government has not given resettled farmers title to land arguing that
doing so could see banks seizing land from defaulting borrowers and later to
transferring it to the rich with capacity to pay for it.
But Nyambirai, in a speech to mark the official opening of the Kadoma
agricultural show here, failure to give title to farmers was a major
obstacle to them securing funding from banks that are reluctant to give
unsecured loans.
He said: “Our Government needs to encourage the flow of capital as the
banking sector is strained to assist farmers due to (an unclear) land tenure
system. Government must come up with a proper land tenure system that gives
certainty on the part of the resettled farmers that he is on the land today
but will not be kicked out tomorrow.
“The Government must give the same assurance to the banking sector that the
land is transferable to a second market in case there is default by farmers
who could have taken financial loans.”
The new farmers have in the past relied on free or heavily marked down seed,
fertilizer and other inputs from the government. But analysts say banks and
other private funders need to resume funding agriculture even a nascent
recovery in they sector is to be sustainable.
The agriculture sector has this year shown encouraging signs of rebounding
after a decade of decline blamed on President Robert Mugabe’s chaotic and
often violent seizure of white-owned farmland for redistribution to blacks.
Rising output of tobacco and cotton, two of Zimbabwe’s main farm exports,
was driving recovery in the agricultural sector that was the engine of the
economy before farm seizures began in 2000.
But Zimbabwe will still need food assistance from international donors
because although food production is on the rise it is still short of
requirements.
Analysts credit the recovery in agriculture — and the economy in
eneral — to the 2009 formation of a coalition government between Mugabe
and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Although the unity government has been rocky it has managed to stabilise the
economy, while its introduction of multiple foreign currencies in place of
the worthless Zimbabwe dollar helped reinvigorate farmers and encourage them
to return to their fields in anticipation of real earnings. — ZimOnline