The deadline has expired for farmers in Zimbabwe to lodge objections to the government's controversial plans to confiscate their lands.

The authorities announced in November that it had selected 1,500 mainly white-owned, commercial farms for nationalisation to resettle landless peasants. They gave the farmers until December 28 to appeal against the decision.

Compensation will be paid for infrastructure improvements to the properties, not for the land itself.

According to Nick Swanepoel, the president of the largely white Commercial Farmers Union, farmers have responded well to the opportunity to appeal against the proposed land confiscations.

Mr Swanepoel said he was confident that President Mugabe would spare productive farms.

Under criteria agreed with the farmers' union, the government is meant to target under-utilised land, farms belonging to absentee owners and land adjacent to communal areas

Mr Swanepoel said: "I am encouraged by what the President has said. We are optimistic that the process will be open and transparent."

Compensation will be paid for infrastructure improvements to the properties, not for the land itself.

President Mugabe says land reforms are necessary

President Mugabe says the land reforms are meant to redress the imbalance in land ownership between white farmers and poorer black farmers.

He says that Britain, as the former colonial power in Zimbabwe, should compensate white farmers for the the loss of their land.

Critics of President Mugabe's plans say that if they go ahead, agricultural output in Zimbabwe could fall by a third and nearly half of the country's agricultural workers could be out of a job.

Opponents of the land reform policy have formed a committee to prove there is enough land available for re-settlement without having to seize farms.
 

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