The first settlers have taken dozens of labourers from Matama to open roads and clear land. Women will be further marginalized as they will be on their own. Gone will be the already slim chances of daughters attending school because they will have to replace the male labour absent. This is why the Forum pushes for scattered concessions, not the compact blocks the Chamber prefers. Ideally, there would be adjoining Mozambican and South African commercial farmers, and large blobs of equally fertile land, held by communities through recognized and guaranteed customary rights.
Women retain the ability to make economic decisions.
The settlers say they do not want to take land from locals. A mere 4,140 hectares are under cultivation. But uncultivated land does not mean it is not used or that it does not belong to a community. Niassa's farmers practice a system of shifting agriculture spread over many years. As soil fertility declines, they leave land fallow for 3-4 years and move away.