Zim crop planting falls short
26/12/2004 15:01  - (SA)  

Want to know more? Answerit can help.

Zim harvests lagging behind Zim harvests lagging behind Zim harvests lagging behind Rural Zim runs out of food Zim official in 'farm theft' Zim official in 'farm theft'

Zimbabwe Special Report  Latest Zimbabwe Stories

Harare - Farmers in Zimbabwe have ploughed and planted less than a quarter of the targeted agricultural land, raising fears of food shortages next year, agriculture minister Joseph Made has announced.

Quoting Made, state radio on Sunday said that "due to the shortage of tillage equipment, farmers have planted crops on 977 694ha this season, compared to the anticipated four million hectares".

The minister added that "no one can assess the impact of what the 977 694ha planted so far - instead of the targetted four million hectares - will have on the output of maize (staple grain) as it is in the middle of the agricultural season."

A senior official in the agriculture ministry, Shadreck Mlambo, last week warned that "time is running out".

Tens of thousands of farmers, mostly small-scale black farmers, have taken over land once owned and ploughed by a small group of large commercial farmers under the country's four-year-old controversial land reforms.

Thousands of white Zimbabweans have been driven from their farms since 2000 when President Robert Mugabe instituted a policy of seizing and redistributing prime agricultural land to black people.

Made told Ziana state news agency at the weekend that the country needed at least 50 000 tractors to meet its agricultural requirements. A team of engineers and officials left on Christmas Day for Iran which has offered to help Zimbabwe set up a tractor manufacturing plant.

Fewer than half of the 733 tractors in the country are currently operational due to shortages of spares.

Made urged farmers to use animal-drawn ploughs as tractors are in short supply and said farmers should not adhere to the traditional strict planting days as the rainfall season has "slightly changed".

Zimbabwe, once a breadbasket of Africa and net exporter of food, has in recent years suffered food shortages which critics blame on the land reforms. Government says food production has fallen due to shortages of input and successive years of drought.

This year government told international food aid agencies that it required no aid as it had produced in excess of its national requirements.

- AFP

What is this? Yahoo Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Brought to you by OUTsurance Car Insurance
	News24 Headlines on your Facebook profile		News24 on mobile