Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA) agrees, to some extent, with the Minister of
agriculture that food security starts at household level by ensuring that
farmers secure their harvest as opposed to selling it to unscrupulous
businessmen.
ZLA believes that the basis for food security is land tenure security for small
scale farmers as they are the ones that produce the bulk of the food for national consumption.
Therefore, ZLA believes that the finalization and adoption of the National
Land Policy is one way of promoting food security and poverty alleviation
because the policy will help in addressing land tenure security challenges
faced by small scale farmers.
ZLA Executive Director, Patrick Musole, was reacting to an article carried
by the Daily Nation in its Thursday 6th June 2019 edition, where the Minister
of Agriculture Michael Katambo was speaking at the Copperbelt Agriculture
and Commercial Show.
Mr. Musole said that most of the small-scale farmers don’t have security of
tenure to their land, which discourages them from investing on it due to the high risks associated to customary land.
“We need to protect the land rights of small-scale farmers so that they don’t
perpetually live in fear of displacement and loss of their land and
investments”, Mr. Musole said.
He said there is need for the Ministry of Agriculture to work in collaboration
with the Ministry of Lands to secure land for the small-scale farmers as this
will encourage them to invest more in their farming activities, which will
guarantee food security both at household and national level.
Mr. Musole went on to underscore the urgent need for a National Land
Policy that would address various land related challenges that have a bearing on food production and food security at household, community and national
levels.
End