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Disillusionment on black owned farms
ZimOnline
November 12, 2005

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6J53WG?OpenDocument

RUSAPE - Heavy pregnant clouds slowly gather in the dark, threatening skies. A cool breeze, blows from the south amid flashes of lightning and cracking thunder.

After weeks of eager expectation around the country, the rains are finally here, to the relief of thirsty earth and thousands of farmers who toil the land.

But for James Munzara, a small-scale farmer in Nyamajura village, 150km east of Harare, this farming season is threatening to explode into a real nightmare.

In a normal farming season, Munzara would have welcomed the rains which fell earlier this week, signalling the start of the farming season.

Not anymore.

Munzara, is among thousands of black Zimbabweans who benefited from the government’s chaotic and often violent land reform programme five years ago. But he reckons this season will be his worst since moving here.

"I am going through my worst farming nightmare ever. Most farmers here don’t care whether it rains or not. The land has not been prepared, seed and fertilizer are in short supply and where available we can’t afford them," says Munzara, throwing his hands in the air.

Zimbabwe is facing severe food shortages blamed on President Robert Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks five years ago.

The farm seizures, which Mugabe said were necessary to correct historical imbalances in land allocation, slashed food production by 60 percent leaving Zimbabweans dependent on food handouts from aid agencies.

A five-year old severe economic recession has seen Zimbabwe run out of basic foodstuffs, medicines and fuel. Fertilizer, seed and other critical farming inputs are also in critical short supply because of a lack of foreign currency to import the products.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party and the West blame Mugabe for ruining what was once one of Africa’s strongest economies in Africa.

But Mugabe, the only leader Zimbabweans have known since independence from Britain 25 years ago, denies charges of mismanaging the economy blaming the crisis on sabotage by Britain and the West whom he says were unhappy over his seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

With this food crisis, the farmers say they expected the Zimbabwe government to roll up their sleeves to, once and for all, break the cycle of hunger and poverty brought about by falling output on the farms over the past five years.

"We are going to have even more food shortages next year. Most farmers will just watch while the season passes by because of lack of resources and finance," says Munzara.

Another farmer in Nyamajura, 48-year old Mirirai Chikasha says the government is squarely to blame for the lethargy in the farming sector after failing to equip the new breed of black farmers with relevant skills and inputs to maintain production on the farms.

"The responsible government ministers should be held responsible when people die of starvation next year. They have failed to support the farmers in a big way," says Chikasha.

Chikasha says he would not grow a single crop this year because he has failed to access tillage equipment and has no money to buy seed and fertilizers which are all in critical short supply.

Chairman of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Lands, Land Reform, Resettlement and Agriculture Walter Mzembi, last week echoed the same sentiments when has accused the government of failing farmers through piecemeal support programmes.

Mzembi, a ruling ZANU PF legislator, admitted in Parliament last week that all was not well in the farming sector.

"The fertiliser companies confirmed to your committee that they had nothing in stock for the summer crop. The industry failed to secure foreign currency to import vital raw material components," he said.

With no title deeds, the new farmers have found it almost impossible to access loans from the financial sector. The government-owned District Development Fund, tasked to help farmers with tillage, has also failed to till the land because of the grinding fuel crisis.

"I used to admire our government but I am now left wondering what has gone into them. Now they are wasting money on useless things like the Senate yet farmers are stranded.

"How are we going to feed our families and the nation? Is the Senate a granary?"asked a visibly worried Chikasha.

Zimbabweans go to the polls later this month to elect senators for an upper chamber of parliament. The reintroduction of the senate which was abolished 10 years ago, has been met with fierce criticism from Zimbabweans who say the country cannot afford such a project while at least four million people are facing starvation.

The president of the mostly black Zimbabwe Farmers Union, Silas Hungwe admitted that the country was facing a food crisis. He said: "Preparations are not at the stage we would have wanted them to be. Most farmers badly need tillage, seed and fertilizer and it seems they are failing to access these things and it’s getting really late."

Contacted for comment, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, who has presided over the collapse of Zimbabwe's farming sector over the last five years, said the government was working flat out to ensure the farming season succeeds.

"It is crucial that the farming season succeeds because we badly need the food. We can’t beg from other countries when we have our own farmers. The government is working overtime to ensure that farmers have everything they need," he said.

But as Made expressed the wish to see a successful farming season, many farmers like Munzara have already written the season off, leaving Zimbabwe to face yet another year of increased hunger and more begging bowls.

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