Mberengwa North lawmaker Tinashe Shumba has raised concern in Parliament over farmers cultivating beans on roadsides, attributing this to failure to secure land.
According to the lawmaker, this highlights a growing land scarcity problem nearly 25 years after Zimbabwe embarked on a fast-track land reform programme.
Shumba made the remarks while questioning Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development minister, Anxious Masuka, about what the government is doing to address the matter.
In response, Masuka indicated that roadside and spring bean farming is illegal and urged farmers to apply for land through official channels.
The exchange drew supplementary questions from Mbizo Member of Parliament Corban Madzivanyika and Zvimba East legislator Kudakwashe Mananzva regarding land allocation and underutilisation.
Shumba asked Masuka what the government was doing for farmers who practise spring bean cultivation on roadsides.
He said the farmers told him that they have no land, adding that given a growing population more land for farming was needed.
"What measures has the government put in place to ensure that farmers are given land for farming? The number of people being born is growing. They now require land for farming," Shumba said.
Masuka said the practice was unlawful and warned against using it to gain attention.
"People are illegally doing things so that they can earn the spotlight, and secondly, it is illegal to do spring bean cultivation. It is also illegal to farm on the road," Masuka said.
He advised affected farmers to approach the ministry for guidance on how to apply for land.
Madzivanyika followed up, saying roadside farming is evidence that many Zimbabweans lack land.
"What is government policy to ensure those people are allocated land and when will they be given land, because it is the land that the people fought for?"
Masuka indicated that government policy requires all those requiring land to go to a district or a province and apply so that the District Lands Committee will then look into their applications.
He said applications moved from the district to the provincial committee before reaching the minister, under a 22-page Land Policy Guideline.
Masuka noted that 99% of land has been allocated since 1981 and the 2000 fast-track land reform programme, leaving little land for redistribution.
He added that President Emmerson Mnangagwa shifted focus to issuing title deeds in October 2024, calling it the final land audit.
Zvimba East MP Kudakwashe Mananzva then asked what action is being taken against landholders who underutilise their farms.
Masuka said the policy was clear on repossession for underutilisation.
The country’s land reform programme, launched in 2000, saw the redistribution of over 11 million hectares from roughly 4 500 commercial white-owned farms to nearly 300 000 black families.
While the government has declared the programme irreversible, critics argue that the process was marred by chaos, multiple farm allocations and subsequent underutilisation.
Studies have shown that while the land reform succeeded in transferring ownership, productivity on resettled farms falls short of pre-2000 levels due to a lack of inputs, capital and technical support.
This has driven landless citizens to adopt informal cultivation practices, including roadside and stream-bank farming.
