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Mugabe's food production project flops
ZimOnline
May 24, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/printme.asp?ID=12156

MASVINGO - Only 10 tonnes of maize will be harvested in Masvingo province out of the10 000 tonnes that were expected under an army-run food production programme, in a vivid illustration of how President Robert Mugabe's latest agricultural initiative has flopped.

Mugabe, who is accused of wrecking Zimbabwe's mainstay agricultural sector through his farm seizure policy, last year told Parliament that his government would pursue a new Stalinist-style command agriculture programme under which military commanders and their troops would move onto mostly former white-owned farms to produce food.

The 82-year old President said the programme, officially known as Operation Food Security (or Operation Maguta/Inala in the vernacular Shona and Ndebele languages) would bring an end to acute hunger stalking Zimbabwe since farm seizures began six years ago.

But Vice-President Joice Mujuru was so disgusted that she would not even finish inspecting the army-cultivated fields in Masvingo after seeing that nearly all the crops were a total write-off.

Mujuru was in Masvingo to assess the food production programme which the government said would see selected farms across the country produce specific quantities of strategic crops such as maize, wheat and tobacco.

A livid Mujuru, who cut short her inspection after viewing generally wilted crops at the giant Nuanetsi Ranch, castigated officials from the government's Agricultural Development Authority (ARDA) for failing to supervise the project.

"This is a disaster," said a visibly angry Mujuru. "How can the whole province fail to produce half of the projected yields?" she said, asking no one in particular.

A senior official with the ARDA, who refused to be named, told ZimOnline that out of the 10 000 tonnes of maize the government expected to harvest in Masvingo, only 10 tonnes probably enough to feed two small-sized families would be harvested in the province.

"We are going to harvest only 10 tonnes from the whole project in Masvingo which is a clear indication that it was a flop. With proper planning, this project could have helped the nation," he said.

Zimbabwe has battled severe food shortages since 2000 after Mugabe sanctioned the violent seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks, a controversial policy that saw food production tumbling by about 60 percent, chiefly because the cash-strapped government did not give inputs and back-up support to black peasants resettled on former white farms.

A grinding economic crisis described by the World Bank as unseen in a country not at war, only helped worsen hunger in Zimbabwe with many families without income to buy the little food available in shops. Only the timely intervention of international food agencies has helped Zimbabwe escape mass starvation over the last six years.

But Mugabe, eager to portray his land reforms as successful, rejects destroying agriculture and says food shortages are as a result of a combination of drought and Western sanctions that have crippled the economy making it difficult for farmers to access inputs.

In Masvingo, the provincial governor, Willard Chiwewe, attributed the failure of the latest state agricultural project on failure by senior government officials to effectively supervise the food production project.

"We did not supervise the project on a daily basis that is why it failed," Chiwewe told ZimOnline. Reports from other provinces also say not much will be harvested under Operation Food Security for a variety of reasons including theft of farm equipment from the army-operated farms committed by powerful government politicians.

For example, the deputy commander of the army's 3 Brigade Ronnie Mutizhe, recently told Mujuru that not much would be harvested at Kondozi farm in the eastern Manicaland province and one of the biggest estates in the country after six officials, among them State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa and Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, looted equipment from the farm. - ZimOnline

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