@ NAMIBIA-FARMS

WINDHOEK 25 May 2007 Sapa-dpa

LAND REFORM SET TO BECOME EXAMPLE

Namibia's land reform process, despite some glitches towards a
speedy and efficient redistribution of land, looks set to becoming
exemplary in terms of cooperation and support from within the
farming community.

South Africa's Female Emerging Farmer of the Year 2006, Olga
Nghatsane, her country can learn from Namibia when it comes to
communication and support as black farmers enter the fold of
previously mainly white-owned commercial agriculture.

"They're so open to each other, they help each other and I wish
that could take place in South Africa as well," Nghatsane told
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, adding that there was an inherent fear
of the other, which still needed to be overcome in South Africa.

Nghatsane, who owns a poultry farm in Mpumalanga province, was a
guest at a Farmers' Day on the farm of Namibia's Emerging Farmer of
the Year 2006, Clara Bohitile.

She praised the Nina Farmers' Association for the support in
bringing new farmers up to scratch in terms of productivity. At the
same time, she urged Namibia to follow in the footsteps of South
Africa regarding government support for emerging black farmers.

In South Africa, people can lease a piece of land for 12 months
with the aim to buy and in that period they're assessed as to their
commitment and capabilities towards commercial agriculture.

"I think if emerging farmers are resettled there's a need for
government to support them, but people also need to prove they have
a passion for farming," Nghatasane said.

In Namibia, 1,635 families have so far been resettled on
commercial land. But land alone does not satisfy emotions and it
does not feed hungry mouths in the absence of skills and know-how
regarding the utilisation of agricultural resource.

"What is much more important though is that emerging farmers get
the right support to ensure agriculture remains one of the
mainstays of the economy," says Vehaka Tjimune, executive director
of the Namibia National Farmers' Union (NNFU) founded in 1992 and
representing communal farmers and new commercial farmers.

This support, which to date from government's side has been
mainly one of lip service, is provided by the Emerging Farmers'
Support Programme initiated by the NNFU and its counterpart the NAU
and support by various private sector organisations.

"We have a sector that's struggling and a sector that has a vast
knowledge of agricultural and management skills. By bringing them
together we find a basis for skills and knowledge exchange and
mentorship, which can only benefit those newly resettled and those
turning from subsistence to commercial agriculture," Tjimune says.

Clara Bohitile, a former deputy minister, who has just been
recalled into the day-to-day affairs of government as an MP for the
ruling party SWAPO is strongly critical of the Ministry of Lands
and Resettlement. She says it is clearly not fulfilling its
obligations.

When pointing across the fence to the resettlement farm next
door, she says: "It's difficult for them to be productive because
they do not have the means and there is no assistance on the side
of government and that assistance is needed like never (before)."

Bohitile believes when resettlement farmers come onto a piece of
land granted to them by government, they must be productive. Raimar
von Hase, president of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU),
agrees.

"We cannot afford to compromise on productivity if we want to
ensure people overcome poverty," he says.

At the same time he insists that land reform is necessary and
that the approach taken in Namibia has served the country well.

"Namibia is not Zimbabwe and things are being handled very
differently here," von Hase says. "But the fact is also that people
owning large tracts of land will have to be prepared to part with
some of it in the interest of long-term peace and stability."

In early 1994 then Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab announced
plans to expropriate farms against just compensation as a necessary
measure to speed up land reform and stave off civil unrest.

The previous method of acquiring arable land from a willing
seller was deemed too cumbersome a process given the need to
resettle some 240,000 previously disadvantaged Namibians.

Initial worries that the 2,000 white commercial farmers in
Namibia faced land invasions and violent expulsions of the kind
that had rocked neighbouring Zimbabwe, were quickly dispelled
however.

So far, the government has in fact acquired only five farms by
way of forced sales. A number of others held to be foreign
landlords are now contesting the loss of their farms in the
Namibian High Court.

But a certain unease remains on both sides. Farmers worry that
the lack of clear-cut guidelines regarding the process of land
acquisition could be an indication of ulterior political motives
and government's unwillingness to deal with land reform fairly.

Government officials and politicians feel they're not being
dealt with openly, saying farmers still try to inflate land prices
and seek loopholes to maintain the landlord status which
colonialism and apartheid had afforded them.

A total of 209 commercial farms have been acquired by government
since 1990, 54 in the past year alone, an indication that Namibia
is speeding up its efforts in achieving equitable land
distribution.

Forty-three per cent of Namibia's land is used for commercial
farming, 42 per cent is communal or tribal land and the remaing 15
per cent is for nature reserves and national parks.