The economic viability of emerging commercial farmers under the resettlement programme
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Date
2020
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Abstract
Land reform programmes have been embarked upon by some African governments
to address land inequalities after gaining independence from their colonial masters.
Land redistribution to the land poor and from large-scale farmers to small-scale
farmers is thus robust, both theoretically and empirically. The Government
of the Republic of Namibia (GRN) committed to addressing the skewed land
ownership that prevailed for over a century in the country by introducing land
reform programmes after independence. The National Resettlement Policy, the
Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act (No. 6 of 1995) and the Communal
Land Reform Act (No. 5 of 2002) are the key instruments that guide land reform in
the country, particularly concerning the acquisition of farmland for redistribution
purposes. Secure land tenure is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the
socioeconomic development of any society. Historically, many Namibian people
were dispossessed of their land to pave the way for the establishment of largescale commercial farms with freehold title for settlers. This practice resulted in
many Namibians being confined to small-scale communal subsistence farming
characterised by low returns and insecure land rights. The land redistribution
programmes aimed at ensuring fair land distribution among all Namibians and
the integration of previously disadvantaged Namibians into the mainstream of
the country’s economy. The Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS) provides
subsidised loans to previously disadvantaged Namibians enabling them to
36 • “Neither here nor there”: Indigeneity, marginalisation and land rights in post-independence Namibia
acquire commercial farms and engage in large-scale farming, while the National
Resettlement Programme (NRP) targets small-scale commercial farmers. While
recognising that secure land rights are not the panacea for all shortcomings in
agricultural productivity, this paper seeks to document factors influencing the
economic viability of the resettlement programme in Namibia. This is done by
analysing the ability of leasehold agreements granted to resettlement beneficiaries
by the Ministry of Land Reform (MLR) to attract investment and subsequently trigger
agricultural productivity, as well as by establishing other promoters contributing
to this throughput. It is found that there has been improved productivity at the
resettlement farms, but that there is still a lot of room for improvement. The current
interventions by the stakeholders involved in land reform therefore have to be
buttressed by more innovative efforts and also by the cooperation of the farmers
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Keywords
Land reform, National resettlement policy, Land ownership, Small-scale farmers, Large-scale farmers, Communal land, Farm land for redistribution, Marginalised and land rights