Namibia country report

study sample also complained about the interest rate escalating over the 25-year paybackperiod, the current rates being too high and the grace period being too short. We thereforerecommend extending the grace period for full-time AALS farmers to five years, andlowering the escalating rate of interest thereafter.8.5 Livelihoods for farm workersThe point has been made in this report that all of the livelihood gains resulting from landredistribution have been achieved at the expense of farm workers who lost their employmentwhen the government bought the applicable commercial farms. In a very real sense, thisamounts to solving one problem by creating another. The plight of farm workers who losetheir employment as a result of land reform needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.In the past it was left to beneficiaries to deal with labourers on their land. This situation isclearly untenable and needs to be properly addressed at policy level. In dealing with thisissue, it will be necessary to test the assumption that all farm workers are keen to farm intheir own right, and are by definition better qualified than other applicants to do so. If thisis not the case, it will be necessary to determine forms of compensation for farm workersthat do not involve the allocation of a 1 000 ha unit of land.8.6 Integrating resettlement planning intoagricultural planningLand reform and resettlement policy should be a component of a broader policy on agriculturaland rural redevelopment. This would ensure not only the success of Namibia’s landreform programme, but also the continuing prosperity of its commercial agriculturalsector. Currently, the resettlement programme planning is characterised by the practiceof first allocating land to beneficiaries and then thinking about strategies to assist them.The implementation of policies and strategies is often lacking. Another need is to developplans for environmental reconstruction of degraded commercial and communal farmland.Therefore, greater emphasis should be placed on environmental and land reform policiesin order to provide for the rehabilitation of overgrazed and bush-encroached land that hasenvironmentally degraded the value of land. The groundwork for such reconstruction ofsuitable agricultural land can provide jobs for labourers as well as equip them with skillswhich they can use later to increase the agricultural production potential on resettlementfarms.Financial assistance in the form of an Environmental Investment Fund (as provided for inthe Environmental Investment Fund Act 13 of 2001) or the Land Reform Acquisition andDevelopment Fund (as provided for in the Agricultural Commercial Land Reform Act 6 of1995) should be given priority to help with the rehabilitation of degraded land. Obviously,land with a low carrying capacity cannot provide meaningful livelihood options for landreform beneficiaries.174 ● Livelihoods after land reform: Namibia country report (2010)