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Army forces research institutions to grow maize
ZimOnline
February 05, 2007

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=836

HARARE – The Zimbabwean army has ordered two leading agricultural research institutions to abandon their research activities and throw their weight behind an army-run maize production programme, ZimOnline has learnt.

The army has since 2005 moved onto former white farms across the country to produce strategic crops such as maize and wheat under a Stalinist-style command agriculture programme code-named "Operation Maguta".

According to sources within the agriculture ministry, the soldiers told agronomists at Domboshawa Research Station outside Harare on 12 January this year to stop their research work and put close to 100 hectares of land under maize.

A similar order was issued out at Mokoholi institute in the southern Masvingo province.

The two institutions own farms that they use for research and conduct trials on agricultural seed varieties and technologies.

But agronomists at the two institutions refused to accept the instruction arguing that it would be a waste of resources as it was already too late to plant any maize.

The maize-planting season in Zimbabwe begins between mid-October and late November.

In a show of force, the soldiers who threatened to beat up the agronomists, then dumped the maize seed and bags of fertilizer at Domboshawa insisting that planting should go ahead as per their instruction.

The crop had still not been planted last week owing to a serious shortage of fuel for tillage, sources said.

Last week, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, ordered the two institutions to use draught power to till the land and plant the maize with the minister insisting that the "army was serious on the project".

An agronomist at Domboshawa told ZimOnline: "Planting should normally be completed by early December. Maize takes 90 days to mature for short season grains and 120 days for long season varieties.

"But the soldiers were adamant that planting should go ahead, and even threatened to beat us up, accusing us of trying to sabotage Operation Maguta.

"Made says we must go ahead because the army is serious about food production. They are hoping that the rain season would miraculously stretch to April or May."

Made could not be reached for comment on the matter yesterday.

But Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi confirmed that the army was pushing agricultural research institutions to spearhead maize production in the country.

"The army has come out of the barracks to ensure food security and we cannot leave anything to chance. Everything else is coming second.

"We are in charge of the programme and we are dictating the pace," he said.

The Zimbabwean government has in the past admitted that the army-run food production programme had failed with very little food having been produced at the farms because of lack of resources.

Zimbabwe has grappled with severe food shortages over the past seven years after Mugabe seized white farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

The food crisis is only one of many acute symptoms of an economic crisis that has also spawned shortages of fuel, electricity, essential medicines, hard cash and just about every basic survival commodity.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party and major Western governments blame Mugabe for ruining the country. Mugabe however denies the charge blaming the crisis on sabotage by Western governments opposed to his seizure of white land. - ZimOnline

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