(Ecofin Agency) - “The Zambian government is failing to protect the rights of rural residents displaced by large commercial farms in Serenje district,” Human Rights Watch said in a report released on October 25, 2017. The report is entitled “Forced to Leave: Commercial Farming and Displacement in Zambia”.

“Some commercial farmers have acquired thousands of hectares of land while ignoring legal provisions meant to protect the environment and ensure local communities are compensated if their land is taken. Some commercial farms have forcibly evicted residents whose families have farmed the land for generations,” the document reads.

This is regardless of the fact that Zambian law regulates agricultural and agribusiness sectors. “Commercial farms need to consult affected communities, provide appropriate compensation, adhere to resettlement standards, assess environmental impacts, and comply with relevant laws. Traditional leaders must also consult affected communities before agreeing to land transfers.”

A law that, apparently, agro-food firms establishing more and more in the country, and especially in the Serenje district whose lands are said to be very fertile, tend to take for granted. A development that actually hides a real humanitarian tragedy. "Families that have lived and farmed for generations on land now allocated to commercial farms are being displaced without due process or compensation. Families have been left hungry and homeless," denounced Juliana Nnoko-Mewanu, researcher on women and land at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. 

According to the Ngo, the government is the one to blame most for the situation denounced in the report. “The government of Zambia has exercised exceedingly poor oversight and enforcement of legal requirements over commercial farms. It has failed to enforce laws and regulations that require farms to assess and mitigate the social and environmental impacts of their operations, and is not monitoring whether commercial farming ventures are complying with the law,”  the report states.  

A situation which Human Rights Watch wishes to put an end to. In this regard, it recommends in its report: "The government needs to take dramatic and rapid action to ramp up enforcement of its own laws and regulations," They need to stop forced evictions, and ensure that displaced families are able to secure a remedy for human rights abuses."