Friday, March 29, 2024

Former miners get 15,000 hectares land

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GOVERNMENT has started demarcating 15,000 hectares of land in the Luswishi farm block in Lufwanyama district on the Copperbelt for the 1,691 former miners retrenched from the mines in 2015.

The demarcation of the land follows Government’s directive to local authorities to offer pieces of land to the retrenched miners to enable them to engage in agriculture as a way of diversifying the economy.

Speaking during the land demarcation process in Lufwanyama on Monday, National Ex-Miners and Allied Workers Association of Zambia (NEMAWAZ) president Taulo Chewe said the demarcation shows that Government is focused on ensuring its promises are fulfilled.

“I am happy to see that Government has fulfilled the promises it made to us in ensuring that we get empowered through the land that has been allocated,” Mr Chewe said.
He said the farm plots will empower the former miners economically.

Ministry of Lands assistant surveyor general Charles Pole said each former miner will be given five hectares of land for agriculture.

Mr Pole said of the 15,000 hectares, 8,455 hectares have been allocated to former miners while 1,560 hectares have been reserved for people who have already settled in the area with 440 hectares for service centres and 4,545 for roads.

Mr Pole said the land demarcation process is scheduled to take up to two months.

And Reuben Chilufya, one of the former miners, said he was happy to witness the promise that was made by President Lungu come to fruition.

12 COMMENTS

  1. This is indeed good news. I hope they can qualify for the E-voucher system so they can access the inputs for farming. This is one initiative the government can positively say that they are pro-poor. This exercise should be extended to all retirees who are still waiting for their benefits. Some people who used to work for UBZ having received their benefits yet. This is what we call Zambia-Plus+

    • From miner to farmer. The former miner gets 15,000 hectares of land but freedom fighters get nothing~ask~Gray Zulu.
      Its not only the 1,691 former miners who were retrenched, to date they are more than 12,000 who lost their jobs. What about the remaining 10,309 former miners?
      By the way can PF bandits leave ZCCM~IH get their robbed off $1.6b.
      The Skeleton Key
      ~206~

  2. THIS IS EXCELLENT. NOW THE BENEFICIARIES SHOULD SEE TO IT THAT THEIR LANDS ARE PUT TO PRODUCTION USE ESPECIALLY FOR NON-TRADITIONALCROPS WHICH CAN BE EXPORTED, SUPPLIED TO LOCAL SUPERMARKET, SUPPLIED TO AGRO PROCESSING FACTORIES, ETC. RECIPIENTS SHOULD NOT SELL THOSE LANDS ESPECIALLY TO FOREIGNERS. THEY SHOULD USE LAND AS COLLETERAL TO OBTAIN LOANS FROM BANKS IN ORDER TO DEVELOP THOSE LANDS. YOU CAN’T GET BETTER.

  3. Good news i also hope the necessary skills have been imparted because its difficult to transition from mining to farming,if not then to the majority it will be a sentence of sorts.

  4. 15000 hactares is a land as big as 150 kms (square) How big is Lufwanyama. Really! You are talking about a piece of land as big as from Chingola to Solwezi and all the way up to Mumbwa. May be my agricultural science is bad.

  5. This is the same area where we used to re-settle retired miners in the days of ZCCM. It would be interesting to establish how well the old retirees and their families have done, because the Lufwanyama land is extremely fertile.

  6. Please publish the names and contact for these retrenchees because i want top buy their land , iam so sure that many chaps will sell their land.

  7. This is good news but knowing the mind of a Shimine I am sure 90% of this land will be sold off as soon as they get the papers.

  8. Are u sure they all want to become farmers? its cheap thinking that when retired u can become a farmer. Its infact an insult to us career farmer or Agribusiness men and women.
    Give that land to us then we can employee then to dig. These guys are miners all thier energy is spent digging.

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