$2 billion pumped into agriculture but abused by new farmers
By Tichaona Sibanda
24 February 2012
There are strong indications that many of the farmers who received land
under the controversial land grab program, sold most of the free inputs they
received from government.
This came to light following revelations by Finance Minister Tendai Biti
that the country’s ‘underperforming’ farmers have received over $2 billion
since the formation of the coalition government in 2009. This also showed
that the claims by Robert Mugabe that Biti is deliberately starving newly
resettled farmers, are not true.
Many of the farmers who received large tracts of land are politicians and
include a number of senior ZANU PF officials. Many of Mugabe’s senior
military commanders also received farms, forcibly taken off commercial
farmers.
Mugabe insists the land reform program was initiated to right the wrongs of
the colonial era, when black farmers were forced off their land and forced
into less fertile areas, while the best land was reserved for white farmers.
But the scheme has been widely blamed for destroying the country’s
agriculture-based economy and turning the country into a net importer of
food. Charles Taffs, the President of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU),
told SW Radio Africa on Friday that lack of accountability in the farming
sector has contributed to the decline of production on the farms.
‘We are sitting on a country here which has a potential to be the jewel of
Africa, yet we’re starving. And we are being held to ransom by a very few
people,’ Taffs said.
He said it has been known for years that most of the farmers were getting
free inputs and selling them off, often at half the retail price, killing
off the supply sector.
‘There is no accountability at all, and my good guess is that the money is
more than $2 billion. The whole structure of business has collapsed and the
whole country suffered as a result,’ Taffs added.
Taffs’ predecessor at the CFU, Deon Theron, explained that most of the
beneficiaries of the land were not farmers and that it was easier for them
to sell inputs than produce anything.
‘Part of the bigger problem is most of the guys on the ground allocated land
are not farmers but businessmen or politicians. It makes sense to them to
sell it off (inputs) to other people, rather than try and produce and maybe
make a loss.
‘If the inputs had gone into agriculture, you would have seen it in
production figures. But current production figures confirm nothing has gone
on the ground,’ Theron explained.
He said: ‘If I’m not a carpenter and you give me planks, what am I going to
do with them. I would sell them.’
Analysts believe that the future of agriculture in Zimbabwe is closely bound
to the country’s political stability, macroeconomic stability and
maintenance of law and order, none of which currently exist.