Zimbabwe ? Zimbabwe’s government launched a program to issue 99-year leases to black farmers allocated land seized mostly from white farmers, state radio reported Friday.

The official state media said President Robert Mugabe described the first leases as a landmark in his redistribution program that would improve farm production by giving new farmers security of tenure for more than a generation.

“I believe the farmers who receive the leases will now have the confidence to invest in important infrastructural developments,” Mugabe said.

Mugabe also said the new lease program will encourage farmers to develop their properties, including improvements to buildings, dams, barns, irrigation and other facilities on the land could be used to guarantee loans.

A handful of displaced white farmers are expected to get leases, but not on their former properties, and white farmers’ support groups have expressed skepticism over the lease program.