THE announcement this week by Government that it has embarked on an accelerated land evaluation and audit exercise of the 6 000 commercial farms acquired under the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme will further debunk the myth that the programme is a failure.
There have been strenuous efforts to counter the massive gains recorded by the more than 400 000 households that benefitted from the historic and heroic land indigenisation exercise coming mainly from Western corridors.
With the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement having dispatched 13 teams to kick-start the evaluation exercise, the drive will also bring to finality the issue of compensation of white farmers whose land was given to its rightful owners and speed up efforts to ensure food security in the country.
ZBC TV reported on Tuesday that the programme, dubbed the ‘Accelerated Evaluation Programme’, has already started in Mashonaland Central and is expected to spread to other provinces as the Government moves in to identify vast tracks of idle and underutilised land.
A fortnight ago Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa revealed that Government was targeting the next four seasons to ensure food security in order to revive the country’s fledgling agriculture sector.
VP Mnangagwa chairs the Cabinet Committee on Food Security and Nutrition whose responsibility is to ensure the country has adequate food supplies.
The food security revival strategy revolves around reviving and expanding the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) estates.
To date, more than 10 out of 22 ARDA estates have been revived.
The State-owned entity has invested about US$600 million in various projects since dollarisation through private-public partnerships.
As an agricultural nation, Zimbabwe has worked hard to support farmers through providing seed, irrigation infrastructure and to an extent, finance.
The Food Security and Nutrition Cluster is a key component of Government’s economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-ASSET).
The thrust of the Food Security and Nutrition Cluster is to create a self-sufficient and food surplus economy and see Zimbabwe re-emerge as the Breadbasket of Southern Africa.
Ultimately, it seeks to build a prosperous, diverse and competitive food security and nutrition sector that contributes significantly to national development through the provision of an enabling environment for sustainable economic empowerment and social transformation.
The cluster programmes are aligned to and informed by the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), Draft Comprehensive Agriculture Policy Framework (2012-2032), the Food and Nutrition Security Policy, the Zimbabwe Agriculture Investment Plan (2013-2017), SADC and COMESA Food and Nutrition Frameworks.
It is in that vein that the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Dr Douglas Mombeshora, believes the evaluation exercise will provide a guideline on how much Government should compensate the white farmers in line with the Constitution as well as how best it can give tenure documents to the resettled farmers. 
Government has also put in place a Land Commission which will carry periodical assessments on utilisation levels, challenges on the ground and how best to allocate idle land to productive farmers.
The evaluation teams are reported to have so far identified 800 hectares of idle land in Mashonaland Central, which the Government described as a ‘tip of the iceberg’, as large tracks of land are reported to be under-utilised countrywide.
Last Friday, the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement announced a nine-member commission to carry out a land audit which is expected to address cases of multiple land ownership, land disputes and investigate reports that some resettled farmers are leasing out farms to white commercial farmers, among other issues.
The Commission is headed by Tendai Bare and deputised by Tadious Muzoroza.
Other members of the commission include Retired-Major Abdul Nyati, Janet Manjengwa, Judith Buzuzi, Emmanuel Nyamusa, Margaret Chinamhora, Edmore Ndudzo and Luke Buka.
Early this year, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa revealed a raft of measures that include compensation of white farmers as part of Government re-engagement programme with Western powers.
According to a letter written to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director, Christine Lagarde, by Minister Chinamasa and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya, Government would compensate farmers ‘who lost land’.
“We are moving ahead with land audits to expose any irregularities with the implementation of past land reform,” reads a letter to Lagarde.
“We have submitted to Parliament a bill to establish the Land Commission in line with the Constitution.
“In collaboration with the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme, we started mapping and evaluating farms and devising modalities for compensation.
“The draft bankable 99-year lease is being finalised and is awaiting submission to cabinet.
“This will go a long way in providing security of tenure to the beneficiaries of the Land Reform Programme and consequently boost agriculture by facilitating access to financing and investment.”
In 2013 the World Bank announced it was planning to place stronger emphasis on issues of land tenure and sustainable agriculture, an indication Zimbabwe was right in carrying out its Land Reform Programme which sent an unequivocal message to the world on the importance of land in tackling poverty and enhancing social equity.
The multilateral institution suspended aid for land reform with revival of the agriculture industry now a must.
The IMF, World Bank and other Western multi-lateral institutions disseminated carefully sanitised data which demonised and harped on Zimbabwe’s land reform as lacking economic rationale.
The land issue is now set to be brought to finality through the audit exercise.
Let those with ears listen.