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Seed shortage spells deepening food crisis for Zimbabwe
ZimOnline
August 18, 2005

http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=10394

HARARE - Zimbabwe 's biggest crop seed producer says the country does not have enough seed, which could mean it will face more food shortages next year even if it received good rains in the new farming season, barely three months away.

Zimbabwe has for the last five years survived on food handouts from international donors because of plummeting farm production in part due to erratic rains but largely blamed on President Robert Mugabe's chaotic seizure of productive land from whites which severely destabilised the key agricultural sector.

In its annual report to shareholders obtained by ZimOnline on Wednesday, seed firm Seed Co, said: "Early reports indicate another shortage (of seed) in the coming season."

The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed firm, which grows and supplies various crop seeds including maize, wheat, soya bean, barley and groundnut across southern Africa, blamed the seed deficit on poor rains.

"While the group has contracted enough hectarage across the region to increase its production in the financial year ending February 2006, the erratic rainfall pattern across the region points towards another significant seed deficit," the company said.

SeedCo will only be able to supply 16 000 tonnes of seed maize to Zimbabwean farmers this season while other seed companies will supply about 17 000 tonnes to bring the total of seed supplies to 33 000 tonnes. This is against a total requirement of 100 000 tonnes of seed maize which the government says Zimbabwe requires to ensure sufficient production of the key staple.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had promised to avail enough hard cash to seed firms to import adequate supplies ahead of the new season. But seed companies told the Commercial Farmers Union congress earlier this month that they would not be able to meet the country's requirements due to foreign currency shortages to pay for imports.

Continued eviction of the few experienced white seed growers still remaining on farms was another key reason why seed production continued falling, the firms said.

Zimbabwe was a major food exporter before Mugabe's farm seizure programme which he says was necessary to correct an iniquitous land tenure system under which the minority whites owned 75 percent of the best arable land while the majority blacks where cramped on arid and sandy soils.

But Mugabe's failure to provide black peasants resettled on former white farms with skills training and inputs support has seen food production dropping by about 60 percent.

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