Midlands white farmers spared evictions

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THE Midlands lands committee has resolved to spare 30 white commercial farmers from eviction saying they (farmers) are contributing significantly to the province, Newzimbabwe.com has learnt.

A report has revealed that a resolution was passed to spare 16 dairy white farmers as well as 14 others.

The 16 dairy farms are in Gweru (seven), Kwekwe (seven) with Shurugwi and Mvuma having one farm each.

Of the 14 other farmers, 10 specialise in cattle ranching while four produce soya beans at a commercial scale.

“Cabinet approved that dairy farms should be spared from allocations. The incumbents operating the farms should be recommended to continue with dairy production,” the report reveals.

“This was brought by the realisation that dairy production requires intensive and heavy capital outlays investments. There is also a certain threshold of experience required to make dairy farming viable and sustainable.

“It was also noted that that there has been a drastic decline of milk production since the beginning of the land reform programme……,” the report said.

Early this month government announced that more than 50 farmers in the Midlands province were set to lose their land after recommendations to downsize the farms for resettlement.

Provincial chief lands officer, Joseph Shoko had said government discovered many irregularities on the leased farms.