Position Paper: Key Agriculture Inputs to the Draft Zanzibar National Land Policy

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“Effective Land Policy and Land Laws:  A Stimulus for Agricultural Productivity”

Prepared by:

Organic Farming Association (OFA/UHAI

Kwerekwe

P.O. Box 2386,

Zanzibar

+255 7772 404470

E-mail: uhaznz@hotmail.com

July 2013     

1.         BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1.1       The Problem

Land is critical to the economic, social, and cultural development of Zanzibar.  Land was also a key reason for the struggle for independence and land issues remain politically sensitive and culturally complex.

Zanzibar does not have a single clearly defined or codified National Land Policy. The problems posed by the lack of a policy have been aggravated by the existence of very many laws governing the sector, some of which are inconsistent and incompatible. The result is a very complex land administration system.

In a move designed to reduce disputes over land in the Isles, the Zanzibar government on 16 January, 2012 launched a Land Policy Task Force whose responsibility is to prepare a new land policy for Zanzibar to replace the old one written in 1982 but was yet to be enforce. When reviewed, updated, adopted and implemented, the policy shall ensure that scarce land and its resources in Zanzibar can be planned, managed and utilized in the most beneficial and sustainable manner.

In order to have a proper land policy, the task force needs contributions from different stakeholders before improving it for implementation, OFA/UHAI a registered nongovernmental agriculture organization whose aim is to promote sustainable agriculture production to raise farmer’s incomes and ultimately reduce poverty, with support from BEST-AC collected inputs from agriculture sector stakeholders.  The inputs are to be used in to improve the quality and legitimacy of the final decisions in correlation with agriculture development.

1.2       The Importance of Policy

A National Land Policy is very crucial to guide the country towards efficient, sustainable and equitable use of land for development and poverty alleviation.

1.3       Objective of the Land Policy

 The overall objective is of Land Policy is to promote positive land reforms for the improvement of the livelihoods of Zanzibaris through the establishment of accountable and transparent laws, institutions and systems dealing with land.

2.         THE LAND QUESTION

2.1       Country Background

2.1.1    Geographical Features and Ecological Zones

Zanzibar is composed of two mains Islands of Unguja and Pemba and dozens of islands. The two main Islands have a total land area of 1,658 km² and 985 km² respectively (Sibuga 2010).  

Low ridges lying NNE-SSW, with a maximum elevation of 120 m, mark both the islands.

The eastern seaboards are characterized by shallow neutral to alkaline, highly humus young soils overlying coral rock within which may be found limited pockets of fertile soils. This “coral rag” covers 59% of Unguja and about 17% of Pemba, a total of about 43% of the land area of Zanzibar. The plantation areas forming the rest of the cultivated parts of the islands are invariably more fertile, but of extremely varied soil types.

2.1.2 Population Patterns

Zanzibar population according to the 2002 Population and Housing Census was 984,600 and growth rate of 3.1% excluding immigrations. Out of the total population, 40% live in urban area and the remaining 60% are settled in rural areas (Research Master Plan and extension vision 2011).

The draft land policy has affirmed that Zanzibar is in scarcity of land with the increasing population of up to 3.1%. Zanzibar has also experienced rapid urbanization since 1964 mainly due to rural-urban migration, inward migration, from one town to another and natural population increase. According to the draft land policy about 40% of the population lives in urban area.

3.         AGRICULTURE IN ZANZIBAR

3.1       Agriculture is the mainstay of Zanzibar’s economy, accounting, on average for 80% of the population deriving their livelihood on this sector, 75% of foreign exchange and up to 32% of the country’s real Gross Domestic Product (Research Master Plan and extension vision 2011).

3.2       The agricultural sector is dominated by subsistence agriculture and export crops such as cloves and spices. The sector has remained the dominant sector of the economy as 40% of the population of Zanzibar depends on it for their livelihood.

3.3       Urbanization, largely through the expansion of urban centers, has used much of the fertile land which resulted into a loss of agricultural land and declining of agricultural production.

4.         History of Zanzibar Land

4.1       Before and after the 1964 Revolution, Zanzibar had various land related policy guidelines.  Although there was no written Land Policy during such period, several land legislations were formulated to facilitate the administration and management of land.

4.2       After the Revolution of 1964 major changes were made to the administration and management of Land. The most important being Presidential Decree No.13 of 1964, which vested all land to the Government of Zanzibar, came to enforce from March 8, 1965.

4.3       Land apportioned in the three acre plots (TAP) and distributed to peasants with a caveat not to transfer ownership and inheritance.

5.         Review of the Draft Land Policy

5.1       Policy Review

The government of Zanzibar has designed a proper and policy formulation principles based on key guiding values to be consultative, participatory, transparent and inclusive. Therefore the land policy is expected to generate the issues and recommendations report produced by different stakeholders and groups comprising of state and non-state actors.

For that reason OFA as agriculture based membership organization representing the agriculture sector applied and received a grant from BEST-AC to collect inputs from Unguja and Pemba agriculture sector stakeholders on issues to be considered in developing the land policy. 

5.2       Land Policy for Development

The National Land Policy is to secure rights over land and provide for sustainable growth, investment and the reduction of poverty in line with Zanzibar overall development objectives. The Zanzibar Land Policy should:

• offer a framework of policies and laws designed to ensure the maintenance of a system of land administration and management that will provide all citizens with the opportunity to access and beneficially occupy and use land; e
• ensure economic viability, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable allocation and use of land;
• exhibit an efficient, effective and economical operation of land markets; efficient and effective utilisation of land and land-based resources; and
• reinforce efficient and transparent land dispute resolution mechanisms.

5.3       Agriculture Stakeholders’ Contribution to the Draft Land Policy

The following are the findings and recommendations of the agriculture sector stakeholders to the land policy:

5.3.1    Review of Land Policy

The National Land Policy is a living document which comprises an overall framework and set of principles to guide sectoral, legislative and institutional reforms in land administration and management. It is essential to have the Land Policy reviewed every ten years to take into account current and future needs in view of social and economic dynamics in the land sector.

6.         LAND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Immediate, holistic and systematic policy attention to the land question is needed from a historical as well as contemporary context to address the economic, social, cultural, governance and political implication of the land issue. 

6.1       The Land Policy has link with national strategies for poverty eradication, i.e. Vision 2020 Vision 2020 (RGZ, 2000) sets as its Overall Development Goal (section 1.4.1) it is envisaged that Zanzibar should be society that reflects the following attributes, among others; a developed a strong, diversified, resilient and competitive agriculture, industry, tourism and other productive socio-economic sectors to cope up with the challenges of the changing market and technological conditions in the world economy while attaining higher degree of foreign direct investment that will inject sound capital, create full employment and positive balance of trade in the export market. Therefore in order to attain these goals Zanzibar has to enhance land use to support the economy through the sectors mentioned therein by putting in place mechanisms that will facilitate expansion, cope with challenges and competitiveness of land based investments.

6.2       Zanzibar National Land Policy should Link with MKUZA II (RGZ, 2010) principally, because it recognizes the most vulnerable group of land users specifically the small scale farmers who are the main Zanzibar’s agriculture sector players and second largest employer.

6.3       Zanzibar National Land Policy and Agriculture

Agriculture is the engine of growth as in Zanzibar; the land policy should create an enabling environment for the transfer and exchange of land rights formally or informally through community arrangements.

6.4       The Zanzibar National Land Policy is supposed to address the following important issues:

(a) Constitutional issues;

(b) Land tenure issues;

(c) Land use management issues;

(d) Land administration issues;

(e) Land issues requiring special intervention;

(f) Institutional framework; and

(g) Implementation framework.

(h) Corruption

7.         CONCLUSION

Agriculture has continued to be an important pillar to support livelihood of a larger proportion of our people. This sector is responsible for ensuring food security by providing crops, livestock and marine products sufficient to feed over 1,000,000 people residing in Zanzibar. Agriculture is a direct source of employment to about 42 percent of the population and contributes to more than a quarter of the national economy.

Zanzibar has a great potential for developing agriculture, taking into account its comparative advantage of having good soils and rainfalls to support crop production as well as natural pastures for feeding livestock. The great variety of marine wide-ranging flora and fauna species and a diversity of forest resources provide only one of its kind opportunities for the islands to reasonably taking a lead in fulfilling the demand for domestic and export market of farm products, especially fruits and spices at the regional and international horizon. Therefore deserve to be given due recognition as far as National Land Policy is concerned.

8.         RECOMMENDATIONS

The effective implementation of the new proposed Zanzibar Land Policy in support of the agriculture sector would depend greatly on strong and appropriate institutional and legal framework. On the basis of this linkage between policy implementation on the one hand, and institutional and legal framework on the other, the following are some of the recommendations for consideration in the policy:

• Land Tenure Security: Land tenure in Zanzibar which has been is a mixture of various systems (Land Act No. 12 of 1992) recognises three types of land tenure systems. Tenure security is important to agricultural production and it also provides poor people with the means to equitably negotiate the diversification of their livelihoods using their land.                    

                                                                        Participant from Unguja contributing

• Minimise conflicts among the various users of lands through proper implementation of land use planning to curb improper use of productive land. 
• Specific framework for protection and conservation of water catchments areas against contamination, pollution and misuse. This will address the negative impacts to irrigation water which is the essential for agricultural activities.
• Rain water harvesting strategy is another suggested point for inclusion in the draft policy as alternative source of water.
• The Land Policy has to address sand and stone extraction as key issue in land use system in Zanzibar to guide the challenge that is Zanzibar is facing in meeting the demand of and stones for construction purposes. The policy has to consider agricultural and forest activities continuity.
• Access to land which refers to the ability to use land and other natural resources, to control the resources improving the productivity of land including land for agriculture.
• Strengthen the three acre plots (TAPs) system to support the land uses.  It is suggested that in order to ensure sustainability of three acre plots, their management has to be reinforced by Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the government and citizen given the plot to guarantee being used for proposed purpose.
• The Policy should acknowledge presence of corruption in land distribution and allocation and therefore address it in the policy statement and strategy to combat possible unethical behaviours from both the public and private sectors.

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For more Information about this Position Paper and OFA/UHAI please contact:

OFA/UHAI Executive Committee; Kwerekwe; P.O. Box 2386, Zanzibar

+255 7772 404470, E-mail: uhaznz@hotmail.com,