Windhoek
The Ministry of Land Reform has set itself a five-year target for the acquisition of 5 million hectares of land in communal areas to be developed into small-scale commercial farming by the year 2020.
Some 64 of these small-scale commercial farming units should already have been developed in the designated areas by the end of this year.
Also, the ministry plans to resettle some 100 disadvantaged families per annum and by the end of this year should have developed five integrated regional land use plans for five different regions.
By the end of this year, the ministry should also have established the so-called fundamental spatial data sets with coverage of 75 percent.
These ambitious goals were announced by Land Reform Minister Utoni Nujoma when he motivated the N$613 million budget of his ministry in the National Assembly recently.
The Redistributive Land Reform Programme continues to be a priority and in order to respond to the high appetite for land government has since Independence acquired 408 farms, measuring 2,9 million hectares at a cost of N$1,4 billion.
He said the ministry is still to acquire another 2,1 million hectares to realise the 2020 target.
Last year a total of 36 farms – measuring close to 190 000 hectares – were acquired at a cost of N$290 million. An amount of N$336 million was allocated to the programme against the set target of acquiring 187 000 hectares per annum.
This represents a success rate of 98 percent, while 57 families were resettled during the previous financial year.
The ministry has been supporting resettled farmers through the rehabilitation and development of water infrastructure, fencing, and the development of communal areas, as well post-settlement support.