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Malawi |
LAND
Malawi’s tea industry is going through a turbulent time. Long–established
estate owners
and poor smallholder farmers are feeling the pinch
Wrangling between large commercial estate owners and the business-orientated Muluzi government over its new land policy, is crippling the tea industry — Malawi’s second largest export crop, after tobacco.
Long-time large estate owners in Malawi, mainly Europeans, risk losing the land they had acquired at the turn of the century, if a proposed new land lease system calling for the abolition of freehold land ownership, is approved by President Bakili Muluzi and his cabinet. A presidential Commission of Inquiry on land policy reform, has recommended in its report which cost the government a staggering US $1.8 million, that the freehold land tenure be abolished or converted to 99-year leases. It emphasises that no more freehold grants should be made.
The Commission’s technical secretary, Viphya Harawa, says this move would create hope for people living in those areas where large estates were opened up by European farmers, to own the land themselves.
The report presided over by 12 commissioners, including chiefs, observed that the formalisation of white settlement through the issue of Certificate of Claims, deprived local people of more than 1,482,102 hectares of land, of which 1,080,000 are occupied by foreign companies.
The Commission charges that most freehold land which is situated in prime arable land in both rural and urban areas, is still owned by individuals or corporations which are not Malawian. The commissioners said that many freehold estates held by corporate entities, are controlled by foreign capital, which until recently, relied upon expatriate personnel for middle and senior management positions, while drawing on Malawians for manual labour and non-essential managerial tasks. Recent studies indicate that freehold estates are substantially utilised. Up to 80% of land is under tea, coffee, tobacco, sugar and macadamia. Tea plantations range from 700 to 8,000 hectares, and substantial revenue accrues to the Treasury through export taxes.
Shady deals
Estate owners have expressed concern over the abolition of the freehold tenure, but the Commission insists that it is not persuades by the farmers’ arguments. As a result, some of the estate owners have resorted to selling off their concerns.
Influential cabinet minister, Brown Mpinganjira, whose decisions are rubber-stamped by Muluzi despite their futility, asked the President to intervene in the sale of one of the estates owned by Eastern Produce. It was originally envisaged that the government should buy the land and in turn, allocate it to the smallholder farmers who are using marginal land to grow tea. But it has transpired that the estate has been sold under shady deals, with nothing being allocated to smallholder farmers. Mpinganjira and close political associates are said to be the reputed owners of the estate under the secret deals. This has been confirmed by his occupying the biggest residence at the estate.
Smallholder tea growers in the largest tea growing districts of Mulanje and Thyolo, despite being promised increased land allocation from the land being sold by large estate owners, have been given nothing. They still depend on half a hectare per family.
The Malawi Tea Factory which was designed solely to manufacture tea from crops provided by smallholder farmers, is being utilised by the estates owned by government politicians, without consideration for the plight of the small farmer. For days on end, tea plucked by the smallholder farmers is left to rot in the fields, due to erratic transportation arrangements. Thus, the smallholder farmer is getting very little for his crop sold to the Malawi Tea Company (MATECO ).
In 1995, over six thousand smallholder tea growers received a US $1.4 million bonus from the Smallholder Tea Authority. This payment has been customary ever since the authority was established over thirty years ago by the Kamuzu Banda government. The idea was to break new economic ground, by empowering the peasants to engage in productive commercial agriculture. Contrary to these intended purposes, the Muluzi administration is neglecting the smallholder sector. The infrastructure is moribund.
The politician-businessman
A new culture of politician-businessmen has cropped up, comprising mainly senior officials of the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) party, who are bent on acquiring as much land as possible for themselves at all costs. Similar oppressive practices are meted out to the tenant farmer in the tobacco industry. The landless continue to be marginalised, whereas the rich politicians are grabbing all available land.
There is presently a general slump in the tea industry. Adrian Whittle, director of the Tea Research Foundation, says that during 1998, tea prices at the auction floors slipped by nearly by US $0.60 per kilogramme compared to the same period (July-December) 1997. Tea exports to the UK. alone dropped from 5,085 tonnes to 4,535 tonnes during the same period.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the Malawi economy, and affects the welfare of over 80% of the population who derive their livelihood from it, directly or indirectly. In the rural areas, it’s mainly the smallholder farmers who are hit by poverty. Profits made, benefit primarily the larger farmers.
Land is of major concern for Malawi, a landlocked country. The fact is, the country’s arable land is already under cultivation. Maize is the staple food and occupies nearly 80% of the cultivated area. Export earnings accrue from three main crops — tobacco, tea and sugar. Hence, land ownership is an issue which cannot be ignored.
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