The name is absent

32

government officials or granted in concessions." Only in a few cases was state farm land
granted to smallholders.' The area of the state farm sector in 1991 was estimated at
approximately 600,000 hectares. ⁷⁰

It is unknown how much privatization of state farm land has been recorded at the
provincial or central levels of government. That is, it is unclear whether any of these
concessions are part of the totals listed in the Boletim. However, given the uncertain legal
status of these farms, ⁷¹ we hypothesize that few of these transactions have been recorded.
They will probably remain unregistered until the legal questions surrounding the state farms
are resolved. Consequently, state farms represent yet another category of land transfers to the
private sector that remain undocumented.

The last type of land acquisition is the reactivation of former colonial-era titles, which
most likely encompass hundreds of thousands of hectares. The Maputo office of DINAGECA
maintains that there are approximately 60,000 potentially valid land titles from the colonial
era. ⁷² Many of these titles may legally be reactivated, though we know little about these
claims. At the same time, there are numerous private agricultural enterprises in Mozambique
such as Entreposto, Mozambique Industrial, and TextAfrica, which have been operating since
the colonial period. There are scant available data on the activities of—or land controlled
by—these enterprises, but it is believed that they jointly hold several hundred thousand
hectares.

A summary of confirmed data and cited cases for all land concessions granted at the
provincial and central levels of government suggests that rights to at least 40 million hectares
have been conceded. Most of this land was granted between 1991 and 1993. These data are
summarized in table 3. Again, the totals do not include data for a number of districts and
provinces and for several sectors, nor do they incorporate concessions that are "in process"
and unrecorded.

68. See Myers, West, and Eliseu (1993).

69. See Tanner, Myers, and Oad (1993); and Myers, West, and Eliseu (1993).

As stated in note 48, we know of only three locations in the country where smallholders have been able to
participate as a group in a government land-distribution scheme—former state farms in Chokwe (Gaza Province),
Buzi (Sofala Province), and Marracuene (Maputo Province). We have recorded a few concessions made to
individual smallholders and to groups of smallholders, all on a temporary basis. These cases are discussed
below.

70. It was asserted in the late 1980s, before the state farm sector collapsed, that the sector covered millions
of hectares. One scheme alone in Cabo Delgado Province encompassed more than 400,000 hectares. The
difference between this earlier figure of several million hectares and the 587,000 hectares reported in 1991 is
explained as the difference between the land claimed by the sector and the land actually farmed. The difference
is important because it suggests a significantly larger area that may be identified as desirable by private or
returning commercial interests. This land was probably surveyed and registered during the colonial period.

71. As reported in Myers, West, and Eliseu (1993), most of the farms divested land before their legal status
was clarified. In many cases the farms had not been nationalized by the state but only "intervened." It is
questionable, therefore, if the state had the right to divest these lands. It is very probable and likely that these
divestitures may be challenged in court as the previous owners return to Mozambique and reassert rights.

72. Virgilio Ferric), DINAGECA/Maputo, personal communication, August 1993. This contrasts with the
few thousand titles reportedly issued since independence (see Garvey 1994).

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