‘Zim secures $300m Brazil farm loan’
October 27 2011 at 03:49pm
Zimbabwe has secured a $300 million loan from Brazil to finance agriculture
and boost crop production after successive years of food deficits, state
media reported on Thursday.
The loan is part of Brazil’s aid programme for Africa, the state-controlled
Herald newspaper said.
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said the funds would be used to support
farmers who have largely failed to get loans from local banks that are still
recovering from a prolonged economic crisis.
“The … programme is important for the country as it has managed to address
some of the challenges we have been facing in securing lines of credit to
support the agriculture sector that is the backbone of the economy,” Made
told the newspaper.
Once a regional bread-basket, Zimbabwe has struggled to feed itself since
2000 when President Robert Mugabe’s government started to seize farms owned
by whites to resettle landless blacks.
The agriculture sector has shown signs of recovery under a unity government
set up two years ago by Mugabe and his rival, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai, following disputed elections in 2008.
The sector is expected to grow 33 percent in 2011, according to government
projections. Production of the staple maize grain has risen from 400,000
metric tonnes in 2008 to 1.45 million tonnes this year, but is still below a
national requirement of 2 million tonnes. – Reuters