Party fatcats, war vets abandon sugar plots

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Zimbabwe Sugar Association chairman Daniel Nsingo said the new black farmers deserted after failing to run them and incurring huge debts.
About 500 black farmers hurriedly occupied sugarcane plots in Chiredzi at the height of government farm seizures in 2001 and had struck a deal with private firms Triangle Limited and Hippo Valley Estates under which the companies would provide labour and inputs for the farmers.
The companies – that are the two sugar milling giants in the country and have seen production slumping since farm invasions – would recover their money from cane delivered by farmers under the agreement.
Nsingo said: “Some new farmers failed to get a single cent as Hippo Valley and Triangle deducted their monies from the cane delivered. They ended up owing the two companies various amounts of money and about 180 have since abandoned their plots because they have failed to run them.”
More farmers were feared could also desert their plots, according to Nsingo.
Poor performance in the mainstay agricultural sector has also had far reaching consequences as hundreds of thousands have lost jobs while the manufacturing sector, starved of inputs from the sector, is operating below 30 percent capacity. – ZimOnline