WINDHOEK- Government says the expropriation of farms could help to increase the supply of land but this would not necessarily reduce the prices.
A report on the study of agricultural land prices released on Monday states that though expropriation in the public interest may be used, where absolutely necessary it will require further consultations with stakeholders.
The Minister of Lands and Resettlement Alpheus !Naruseb and the FAO representative Babagana Ahmadu on Monday released the report that looked into agricultural land prices in Namibia.
“In cases when the land owners are absentee and not utilising their land, the State will expropriate the land through compensation,” the report states.
“However, there is a possibility that expropriation might assist in increasing the supply of land and hence reduce farm prices on the markets,” it says.
The report further says precautions would need to be taken “to avoid protracted court proceedings, extremely high compensation and to avoid negative publicity to investors and international community”.
It cautions that the danger of low farm productivity that could result from widespread farm expropriations should be taken into consideration.
“It has been observed that despite its shortcomings, the market-based land redistribution model often dubbed ‘willing-buyer, willing-seller’ approach is still the best tool of land redistribution,” it states.
It is noted in the report that almost 1.3 million hectares of farmland are still in the hands of foreigners and that land tax is higher for foreign farm owners.
Though the report wants government to consider buying more farmland that is offered to it, it also states that 40 percent of farms offered to government were waived for various reasons such as not fulfilling the suitability criteria and alleged failure by government to accept the offers within the stipulated timeframe. While another reason was that government has exhausted funds meant for resettlement.
“Some farms are too small for resettlement, recording more than 400 farms measuring 3 000 hectares in size to have been waived since 1996, sending fears that the rate at which farms are waived will make it harder to reach the target of 25 million hectares,” the report observes.
The report further recommends that the State consider “the feasibility of identifying under-utilised land that could be suitable for resettlement” and pursue “a process of identifying idle land and urging owners of such land to voluntarily offer land for sale”.
However, the report notes that the suggested approach has practical problems that need to be identified so as not to infringe the landowner’s privacy when identifying idle land, as there will be a need to physically inspect the farms.
“Government should consider buying unsuitable land strategically that will induce more sales of land, as in many cases when a farm is bought by the State or Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS) some land owners decide to sell their farms as the location may not become favourable for them with new neighbours on board and it would likely increase the supply of land,” it states.
With hope lying on the Agricultural Land Reform Act restricting the sale of land to foreigners in an effort to reduce pressure on the limited resource, the country still experiences the sale and leasing of large pieces of land to foreigners raising concerns on whether expropriation would succeed.
The report suggests the introduction of price control to ensure land prices do not exceed the operative agricultural value of farms, and the restriction of certain buyers such as the wealthy potential buyers intending to buy farms for “hobby farming” to pave way for disadvantaged Namibians.