Farmers Defy Govt Directive To Submit Annual Production Returns
Resettled farmers have defied a directive to submit annual production returns, reported Business Times.
The government plans to use the annual production returns as a basis to issue A1 permits and 99-year leases for A2.
Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Anxious Masuka recommended that a Statutory Instrument (SI) should be gazetted to enforce the directive. He said:
We recommend that the annual production and productivity returns should be (done) to guide production and investment. An SI should be issued to make it mandatory for A1 and A2 farmers to submit these annual returns.
This (submission of returns) is an audit on how the farmers are utilising their land, which will decide whether they deserve to have the entire farms to themselves or should share with others or even be moved to smaller land portions that they can fully utilise.
In 2021, the government threatened to remove all the farmers who fail to submit the returns forms but farmers have not complied with the directive.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) president Shadreck Makombe called on farmers to submit the returns forms as required. He said:
We urge all farmers, be it A1 or A2, to submit the annual production and productivity return forms on time to fast-track the issuance of securitised documents.
All farmers should submit and you never know the day when others will get the securitised documents.
In March 2022, Masuka said the returns will be used to assess if they qualify to be issued with a 99-year lease.
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