Economic Development Minister, Sylvester Nguni, claimed that the
spirited opposition by the MDC had affected the new farmers’
confidence to produce for the nation.
Zimbabwe has battled with a gripping food crisis after agricultural
production plummeted after President Robert Mugabe’s government seized
white commercial farms and parceled them to landless blacks without
any farming expertise.
But Nguni told CAJNEWS that the ‘success’ of the land reform programme
had been reversed by the MDC, which ‘demoralised the resettled
farmers.’
“The reason why the nation is facing food shortages is because of
opposition to the land reform programme by the MDC,” Nguni said.”This
resulted in beneficiaries losing confidence to produce food for the
nation.”
The United Nations World Food Programme last week announced that it
had bought over 35 000 tonnes of maize for the country to feed the
starving population.
Zimbabwe says it is importing tonnes of maize from Zambia, Malawi and
South Africa and Tanzania while negotiations with several countries in
Southern Africa to import more maize to avert food shortages and boost
the national grain reserves are going on.
However, the maize imports by the government seem to be failing to
satisfy rising demand a situation that has sparked countrywide
mealie-meal shortages especially in the southern parts of the country.
Nguni added: “The MDC opposition to it (land reform) demoralized most
farmers and this is viewed as sabotage since we now face a food
crisis…”
The US Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service earlier
this year forecast Zimbabwe’s maize harvest at 850 000 tonnes in 2007,
less than half the amount needed to meet domestic consumption.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food
Programme have said that more than four million Zimbabweans, about a
third of the population, would need food aid this year-CAJ News.
Post published in: News