oreign currency crisis and reports that the government has decided to introduce an ambitious new economic programme focusing on increased agricultural production.
Under the proposed economic recovery programme, unveiled by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono on Monday, government has introduced a raft of incentives, including paying farmers in foreign currency to stimulate production.
In the past, government has attempted using threats of repossessing farms seized from whites from unproductive new black farmers. But faced with an election next year, government is now dangling a carrot of US$200 per ton for maize delivered to the GMB. Similar incentives have been introduced for wheat, soya beans and sugar bean farmers.
Gono said about 100,000ha of land would be put under irrigation for maize production and was expected to yield about 400,000 tons.
He said he expected basic commodities to be full in the shops again in three to four weeks. Analysts have described Gono’s projections as “clearly delusional”.
The programme boasts it will create over 1 million jobs. But bankers said the figures given were “optimistic but highly unreliable” because the country was facing a very serious crisis.
A senior banking analyst said radical policy changes were needed to arrest the economic meltdown, and prospects of recovery over the remainder of 2007 remained bleak, aggravated by a plethora of challenges.
“It is inescapable that Zimbabwe will, over the next 12 months, face an acute cereal deficit, closure of which requires at least US$300 million,” he said. – Chief Reporter
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