Land released, and what happens the day after

By 2025 the demining programme had a measurable output: hectares cleared and formally released. That number rose each year. But a released hectare is not yet a productive one.

What stands between release and a crop

Trust, first. A certificate does not by itself persuade a farmer to drive a tractor across a field where a neighbour was injured. Communities need to see the clearance process, understand it, and often see someone else go first.

Then the physical state of the land: craters, compaction from machinery, contamination from fuel and munitions residue, destroyed irrigation, and shelterbelts damaged or cut.

Then capital. A farm that has not produced for three years has no working capital, possibly no machinery, and a bank that regards it as a poor risk.

What is being funded alongside clearance

Soil testing and remediation. Restoration of irrigation. Grants and credit lines for equipment and inputs for farms on released land. And community risk education, which continues after clearance because residual risk is never zero and children need to know what to do.

Why this matters for the whole programme

Clearance is justified by the land returning to use. If released land sits idle for lack of capital, the money spent on demining has bought safety but not recovery — and the two were meant to arrive together.

The measure I would use

Not hectares cleared. Hectares sown in the season following clearance. That is the number that tells you whether the programme is working.