The small scale farmers, many of them war veterans who were resettled on the former white owned farmers, sold all the implements they were given by the government. The veterans, who do not have any farming expertise, have been living on the farms without producing anything and resorted to selling the farming implements and inputs to raise funds to buy food.
The resettled ‘farmers’ were given free hoes, disc harrows, wheel barrows and ox-drawn ploughs.
Villagers living in the farming areas told The Zimbabwean that the resettled farmers had fallen on hard times.
“They have not been producing anything from those farms, not even food for their survival. Most of them have been selling the implements to various individuals in the community to raise money for food while others sold them for buying beer,” said one local.
Headman Zengeni confirmed that some farmers were selling the implements and inputs.
“I have been told by my police details that there were some farmers who were doing that. We have intensified our investigations and we are going to present them to the District Administrator,” he said.
The Zanu (PF) government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Mechanisation headed by Joseph Made has been distributing farming implements and inputs every farming season to the farmers who are known supporters of Zanu (PF) party.
Post published in: Agriculture