Addressing the Buy Zimbabwe Market Campaign this week, Made shocked delegates when he said focus should be shifted from the debate on genetically modified crops to the central question of underutilization of land.
“The GMO debate is a closed chapter. Rather we should ask why the land distributed is being underutilized”.
“The country should come up with answers to the deadly laziness,” he said. Zanu (PF) has hitherto stubbornly denied reports of underutilization of nationalised arable farmland, which saw the country slumping from being the “Bread Basket of Africa” to the “Begging Bowl of Africa.”
Since the bloody fast track land invasions begun in 2000, the country has been forced to import most of its maize and other cereal products.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said that five out of the country’s ten provinces are in dire need of food aid following the failure of the 2011/2012 farming season.
Post published in: Agriculture
I was on holiday in December after a long break caused by political uncertainty and disjunction. Nothing had prepared me for the shock, Grew up in a rural area full of hard working and forward thinking people. What I saw was a total lack of activity and people dependent and expecting charity hand outs instead of utilising free land. Those who stole land on a political ideology with no vision need to be challenged and great that some like Made and I think on some occasions the President have remarked. We are mortgaging the future of our kids to outsiders Chinese being the latest. The world is an increasingly difficult place and we need coming together in Zimbabwe first. We need to feed ourselves before making others rich out of our resources. My conclusion was that there is an absence of visionary political leadership. We have to rethink our politics. It is a wise horse who runs with his breed. Charity begins at home but we shouldn’t be too dependent on it. After the elections redistribute the land to those who are productive. The reserves which challenged me to be better are now disempowering people. Few citizens have gained from land redistribution.