Mugabe questions quality of Zim’s farmers
by Own Corespondent Saturday 28 August 2010
HARARE — President Robert Mugabe yesterday questioned whether Zimbabwe has
produced the quality of farmers needed to restore the country’s status as a
bread basket and said the supply of critical agriculture inputs remains a
major challenge.
Mugabe’s supporters seized white-owned commercial farms, often violently, in
2000 saying this was meant to redress nearly a century of skewed land
imbalances but the drive was blamed for plunging agriculture production by
60 percent and fanning food shortages.
Critics of Mugabe’s land reforms say the majority of black farmers who
grabbed farms do not have enough skills to till the land and failed to
access badly needed inputs like seed and fertiliser, which has seen vast
tracts of land lying idle.
Zimbabwe has struggled to feed itself in the past decade and agriculture
plumbed new depths in 2008 when farmers produced 500,000 tonnes of the
staple maize against national requirements of 2 million tonnes.
Production has picked up since last year thanks to international aid
targeting provisions of free seed and fertilisers for farmers in the once
famine-threatened country, better use of land, and the end of hyperinflation
following the formation of a unity government between Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
“As we celebrate the 100 years of exhibition excellence in our 30th year of
independence, we should ask ourselves whether we have produced the quality
of farmers that we desire,” Mugabe told a gathering marking the centennial
celebrations of the Zimbabwe Agriculture Show yesterday.
“The supply of agriculture inputs remains a major challenge. We need to
overcome the perennial programme of failing to provide inputs on time as we
also need to seriously address the credit lines from banks and agro industry
plus the high cost of borrowing.”
Mugabe said the lack of financial support to farmers remained a sore
challenge, which left most farmers feeling abandoned by the government.
The 86-year-old said despite the mid-season drought the combined cereal and
small grains during the 2009/2010 season had risen to more than 1.5 million
tonnes and put the national requirement at 1.7 million tonnes.
“Several questions need to be answered to strengthen our farmers. Our
farmers have increasingly felt abandoned when after harvesting they find
that the market and the producer price on offer do not seem to quite
acknowledge the hard work and higher that preceded crop production,” Mugabe
said. – ZimOnline.