HARARE, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe can draw lessons from China on unlocking the economic value of agricultural land through secure, bankable, registrable, and transferable title deeds, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Mthuli Ncube said on Thursday.
At a high-level stakeholder meeting on land tenure reform in Harare, Ncube said the country must move decisively from mere land access toward full, sustainable, and productive land use through secure tenure.
To consolidate the gains of its land reform program, Zimbabwe is seeking to strengthen farmland titling and registration systems, replacing existing 99-year leases with bankable, registrable, and transferable tenure documents for beneficiaries, he said.
Security of tenure boosts agricultural investment, enabling farmers, financiers, and investors to plan with greater certainty to modernize the country's agricultural systems, according to the minister.
"China demonstrates that value can be unlocked even where underlying rural land remains collectively owned," Ncube said. "By certifying long-term household contract rights and allowing operational rights to be leased, transferred and consolidated, China created room for investment at scale while protecting the underlying rights of rural households."
He added that China's experience shows the economic power of tenure lies in rights that are clear, durable, registered, and transferable.
With agricultural land in Zimbabwe valued at an average of 6 U.S. cents per square meter, providing secure tenure has the potential to unlock up to 20 billion U.S. dollars currently unaccounted for in the national gross domestic product, Ncube noted.
To achieve this, the government's immediate priorities include establishing an integrated digital land-information system, clarifying legal frameworks around transfers and mortgages, harmonizing valuation and lending standards, and linking titled farms to critical infrastructure and markets.
"We must collectively transform the land in the hands of our people into a foundation for increased production, decent jobs, exports, rural industrialization and sustainable national prosperity," Ncube said. ■