By KENNEDY MUPESENI –
AGRICULTURAL subsidies and land policies in Zambia and other African countries have accelerated the demand for land, the Regional National Institute Policy Research Institute (ReNAPRI) has said.
Recent evidence indicated that relatively wealthy people both rural and urban are investing in land at an unprecedented rate, leading to the rapid rise of medium-scale farmers in Africa.
The demand for agricultural land in Africa has risen dramatically since the surge in global food prices starting in 2007.
A ReNAPRI study in 2014 involving Zambia, Ghana and Kenya indicated that medium-scale farms control more land than large-scale foreign investors in all three cases and control even more than small-scale farmers in two of the three cases, hence the need to come up with good land policies.
“Evidence also suggests that existing land policies are leading to increased inequality of landholdings and in some cases may be making it more difficult for area expansion in densely-populated smallholder farming areas,” the report said.
To reduce the effects of shortage of land the report recommended the formulation of policies to make sure that land was distributed equally.
It said continuous cultivation of existing plots would not necessarily pose problems for sustainable intensification if soil quality was to be maintained or improved over time through sufficient use of fertilizers, soil amendment practices to get maximum benefits.
The study indicated the need to avoid unsustainable farming practices that degrade the soil.
“Soil organic matter poses special problems, because they cannot be ameliorated by the application of conventional inorganic fertilisers as they tend to depress the efficiency of inorganic fertiliser in contributing to crop output,” the report added.