Miners Vs. Farmers: Zambia's Ongoing Battle

Should the livelihoods of a few be compromised in the name of progress? For Zambians this is more than a rhetorical question.

This week the IRINNEWS reported that miners in the Luapula Province in northern Zambia were purportedly evicting farmers. According to villagers, miners violently forced them out of the lands where they grow small-scale crops. The land that these farmers claim has belonged to their families for generations is located in mineral-rich regions, attractive to foreign investment.

But Zambia officials see it another way and argue those lands lack proper titles and have been illegally appropriated by locals.

And this is where it gets sticky.

Zambia has deep-rooted, land tenure issues. Land is administered by customary land law, a system by which tribal authorities assign property to families to grow small crops such as cassava, tobacco and cotton. Zambian law also enforces statutory tenure and can revoke land disturbed by tribal leaders.

Mining is one Zambia's strongest source of income (about 80 percent of its foreign earning). So you can see how land issues become murky when investors become interested in the vast supplies of minerals.

So what could be a good compromise?

Henry Machina, executive director of Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA) argues the government should keep both customary and statutory land tenure. Customary land, says Machina, is the viable way for farmers to own land, an important tool to quell regional poverty.

Deputy Minister of Mines, Boniface Nkata, said the government was preoccupied with the increasing evictions (500 since 2009, according to a ZLA official). And he should. Balancing between the interests of miners and farmers should not require violent removal of poor citizens' homes and undercutting their one source of income.

Instead, Zambia needs to develop a new model that protects both foreign investment and the interests of its most vulnerable citizens.

Photo Credit: Dominic's pics