Land-Based Livelihoods - Are They Still Important For Rural Communities?
An Opinion Piece
06 March 2009
The Namibian
By: Shadrack Tjiramba*
Why should we concern ourselves with land-based livelihoods for rural people in Southern Africa?Access to land and security of tenure in Southern Africa in the 21st century remains at the heart of all rural communities and continues to be an important area of contestation in Southern Africa.
Controlling land and utilising it are critical dimensions of rural livelihoods, and determines rural wealth or rural poverty. Despite significant differences, Southern African countries share important features, including a history of settler colonialism and labour migration. They also share a dualistic agrarian structure that is characterised, on the one hand, by highly capital-intensive commercial farming strongly linked to urban industry and export markets, and on the other, overcrowded communal areas or reserves where small-scale agriculture provides a crucial source of income to resource-poor producers.
In rural societies landless people with insecure tenure rights are often the poorest. These communities tend to have secondary rights that do not extend beyond usufruct rights. Since land-based livelihoods remain important for rural people this article attempts to assess what the implications for national development policies must be.
Southern Africa covers a total land area of 693 000 million hectares of which 20 percent or 138 600 hectares is arable. Economic growth in the sub-region is closely linked to land resources, particularly agriculture hence there is a strong demand for arable land mainly in rural areas.
Up to 62 per cent of the population in Southern Africa live in rural areas, depending on agriculture for their livelihood. Hence, land-based livelihoods are important in the region. In all countries in this region which underwent land alienation at the hands of the West, the repossession or redistribution of alienated land was and remains a central national and regional agrarian objective and has been given priority and is incorporated in national developmental goals.
Due to the dual racially based land ownership patterns which prevail it cannot be over-emphasised that land and agrarian reform must address a range of problems arising from colonisation and dispossession.
Although laws have been repealed to create an enabling legislative framework for redistribution, land in the former reserves and communal areas legally belongs to the State. An ‘across the board’ conversion of subservient statutory rights (e.g permission to occupy residential or farming) into secure tenure rights would not be possible due to overlapping land rights and boundary disputes that have to be resolved.
However in many countries – Namibia is no exception, commercial land reform has been given priority over communal development where the masses are. So dominant is the imperative to repossess land from the whites to give it to the blacks, that insufficient attention is devoted to technical post-settlement support on commercial farms acquired for land reform and securing tenure in communal areas.
The communal land tenure system is the most widespread, in which individual property rights are weak. The land tenure system is closely associated with social inequity, including high levels of income inequality. In Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, weak land tenure rights and colonial dispossession are key factors leading to the high levels of unemployment and poverty.
Unemployment rates are particularly high in Namibia at 34 per cent and South Africa at 23 per cent. Namibia is one of Africa’s newest democracies, after 30 years of colonial rule (1884-1915) followed 75 years of South African administration (1915-1990.
Over 50 per cent of Namibia’s population live in rural areas and are dependent on agricultural activities. The Namibian Government has received criticism that the land reform process is proceeding too slowly. Given that there are 6 000 farms representing 52 per cent of arable land, and over one million Namibians are living in communal areas and trying to make a living on a few acres of land, at this level the current approach of land reform is not a programme that will impact significantly on poverty alleviation.
Priority should be shifted to communal land reform where over one million Namibians live. In any event 6 000 farms cannot accommodate all “previously disadvantaged Namibians”.
Another criticism is that the Namibian Government is not granting any legal status to the recipients of the land. Rather the Government is keeping title to itself as “state land” Leaving beneficiaries with some kind of tenant relationship with government is certainly not empowering them at all.
The Government of Namibia introduced the National Poverty Reduction Action Programme (NPRAP) that aimed at “equitable distributions of land, access to land, promoting sustainable economic growth, reduce income inequalities and poverty and the implementation of redistribution of land reform”.
This programme has been guided by the policy of national reconciliation and other national developmental policies that are in line with NDP 2, NDP3 and Vision 2030. However there is no mention of securing land tenure in communal areas as a way of reducing poverty in this programme.
Since Independence in 1990, national agricultural and rural development policies for addressing the problems of poverty and vulnerability have been put in place. On paper these are well-intended policies. But implementation is problematic mainly due to lack of adequate resources and to a great extent lack of political will. In essence, policy guides decision-makers in setting priorities and allocating resources.
The successful implementation of policy is largely a function of political will, allocating resources, co-ordination and well trained staff to manage and implement projects.
Theoretically, socio-economic policies should focus on eradicating poverty in order to maintain sustainable rural livelihood. But this does not happen because the government institutions and services fail to reach the majority of the rural households with relevant technical support to enhance rural livelihood?
The agricultural extension services can serve as a good example. Government extension exists to promote the adoption of improved agricultural technologies and practices in order to increase agricultural production, empower farmers and facilitate sustainable improvement in living conditions of rural communities. Although there are a number of limitations, such as lack of transport, staff shortage and limited capacity to implement relevant developmental policies.
The role of government extension services in enhancing rural livelihood and tenure security remains important for rural based-livelihoods. Therefore Government should make adequate resources available to the directorate of extension services.
To date, national developmental policies in Namibia have failed simply because they don’t embed particular needs of rural communities into national development programmes. The State should investigate means to improve property rights in communal areas to facilitate access to credit at financial institutions. While freehold land has been and continues to be used as collateral for ensuring access to credit, communal land cannot be used for the same purpose due to it’s ownership structure.
In Namibia as well as most Southern African countries land tenure in communal areas is not well defined, as a result hampers development of communal areas and thereby affects the livelihoods of rural inhabitants. This suggests a need to reform national developmental policies and take a look at the tradability of land in communal areas. Improved property rights in communal areas will not only facilitate access to credit, but also enhance investment and improve rural livelihoods.
The Namibian Government should mobilise and direct more support towards the development of infrastructure and securing tenure in communal areas. The latter will allow rural communities to use land as collateral for transactions with financial transactions. Furthermore, the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement should start focusing on integrating registration of land rights into one central registry. This entails surveying and demarcating all communal areas to convert them into either freehold or leasehold. A common dilemma is finding funding for tenure reform. But I am sure funding for revitalising land registration can be procured from government budgets or alternatively could be sourced from donors.
Tenure reform in communal areas can contribute to sustainable livelihoods and to economic development, by removing uncertainty and by encouraging rural households to increase agricultural production and participate in joint venture projects with private investors.
Given the above arguments, government should consider running communal land tenure reform parallel to the commercial land reform, by so doing empowering the masses in communal areas.
* The author of this opinion piece, Shadrack Tjiramba, is with the Land, Environment and Development Project of the Legal Assistance Centre
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