By A Correspondent- The government of Zimbabwe has announced its intentions to convert the commercial farmers’ 5-year leases into 99-year leases.
This was revealed by the minister of Land and Agriculture, Retired Air Chief Marshal Perrance Shiri on Thursday at the 76th Annual Commercial Farmers Union Congress in Harare where he said that the government was eager to formalise white commercial farmers’ operations to boost productivity in the agricultural sector.
He said:
“The government’s position is very clear we have noticed that there are a number of commercial farmers without any documentation of which we are now ready to regularise their activities.”
Mr Andrew Pasco who is the President of the Commercial Farmers Union commended the government for the decision saying that white farmers are ready to work with the government for the turn-around of the country’s economy.
The development has for years been topping discussions to do with the land question with the farmers arguing that the 99-year leases would assist them in securing lines of credit from banks who were rejecting the 5-year leases.
-StateMedia