Pretoria - The government intended to redistribute 1.87 million hectares of land a year in order to meet its 2014 target, the department of land affairs said here yesterday.

This is five times more than the current transfer rate of 350 000ha a year.

Delivering an address on behalf of Gilingwe Mayende, the director-general, at an annual media function, deputy director-general Nozizwe Makgalemele said that 22 million hectares of agricultural land had to be transferred by

2014 in order to meet the presidential directive that 30 percent of commercial agricultural land be held by historically disadvantaged groups.

The department said this rate would be achieved through increased funding that had been made available through "additional agricultural support funds".

"We still have 20.6 million hectares to deliver," Mayende said.

She insisted that this would be done with sustainable development in mind.

Mayende said since 1994, 23 percent of land had been delivered through restitution, 50 percent through various forms of redistribution and 5 percent through the tenure system. She said 22 percent of state-owned land had been reallocated.

"But contrary to a widely held view, there is not much state land available for land reform purposes, especially for redistribution," Mayende said.

She said while the government held 24.5 million hectares (20.3 percent) of the total area of South Africa, only between 5 percent and 7 percent (1.7 million hectares) was available for land reform.

The rest was used for state domestic purposes, she said.

Mayende said many challenges lay ahead, which included the high cost of land and some uncooperative sellers. "But I must admit there are some sellers who have been very helpful."