The government should carry out a thorough land audit and those who cannot use the land should lose it, Bulawayo legislator Joseph Tshuma said last week.
“We are tired as a nation to see people that are going out to farms to carry out braais and parties instead of farming,” Tshuma said.
“Let us be sincere about this thing. It is not about being partisan; it is about food security for our nation, which will in turn make sure that we do not spend money in importing food. That will come from sincere operations on farms.
“I hope that we shall all adhere to the systems of the Land Commission whereby if you cannot use it, you must lose it so that we give people who are capable of using these things for the betterment of our nation.”
Tshuma said taxing land should be based on how productive the land was. In Matebeleland, the main occupation was cattle ranching which used a lot more land but had very little returns.
Farmers in Matabeleland, therefore could realise just over $100 a hectare over two seasons while farmers in Mashonaland could make as much as $3 900 per hectare a year.
He also urged the government to punish those who abuse inputs for the command agriculture programme which is aimed at making the country food self-sufficient.
“I hope that on command agriculture, if ever there is anybody who has decided to be devil enough to take inputs and corruptly sell them, definitely they must be brought to book this time so that people know that our system has got teeth.
“Talking, threatening people and doing nothing will cause people to continue doing wrong things. At the same time, it is the Government that is going to be blamed. I hope if ever there is anybody who is doing anything of that kind, they must know that they will face the music and let them be exemplary.
“We mean business because this is about the nation’s survival. The nation will never survive as long as agriculture is not intact,” he said.
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