Munyaradzi Musiiwa – Midlands Bureau

Government has started downsizing A2 farms which exceed the recommended hectarage in an exercise expected to free idle properties for resettlement — including those held by top politicians.

Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora said maximum farm sizes ranged from 250 to 500ha, depending on the natural agro-ecological region.

Region One is suitable for dairy farming, forestry, tea, coffee, fruit, beef and maize production, while Region Five is mainly good for extensive cattle ranching.

Midlands provincial lands officer Mr Joseph Shoko said the province had already begun implementing the exercise.

Mr Shoko said: “The recommended maximum farm size in the province is 500ha. Anyone whose farm is above that will have to surrender a portion to Government for redistribution. We conducted farm inspections to identify properties whose sizes exceed the recommended hectarage as well as assessing land utilisation.

“We then engaged the farm owners and we did not face any resistance from them. We have already started downsizing the farms.”

Dr Mombeshora said his ministry would initially target 40 farms in Mashonaland East after which the programme would go to other provinces.

“We have started farm-to-farm inspections and we will start in Mashonaland East next week. This will enable us to identify farms that need downsizing and redistribution. We want to make it a policy that we will no longer issue offer letters to farm or plot-holders whose land exceeds the recommended size.

“Offer letter-holders whose land is above the recommended size will have their properties downsized to the stipulated sizes or even less, depending on their land utilisation.

“Work has started; unfortunately there are resource limitations. That is why we have introduced land rentals and part of that money will go towards funding the land audit.

“The farm rental will be uniform for all A1 farmers who will pay US$10 per year to local government and US$5 (unit tax). A2 farmers will pay US$2 (unit tax) per hectare yearly, and US$3 per hectare (land rental), which will be collected by the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement.”