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Confusion on food situation
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-42
Monday October 18^th - Sunday October 24^th 2004

DESPITE the government media regurgitating claims by the authorities that the country had reaped enough crops to feed the nation through its land reforms, The Financial Gazette (21/10) revealed that there was still confusion, even within government circles, on the exact amount of grain the country has produced.

The paper revealed that the parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture would summon Agriculture Minister Joseph Made to explain the country’s food situation.

The weekly also alleged that even ZANU-PF’s Politburo and the Cabinet had cast doubts on Made’s projections that the country would produce more than 2,4 million tonnes of cereal.

Lending credence to fears of food shortages, the paper also cited reports from the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) and Amnesty International (AI) disputing government’s projections of a bumper harvest saying millions of people were in need of food aid.

The government media remained silent on the issue.

As a result, most Zimbabweans who are now obliged to rely on these media following the forced closure of alternative sources of information, were left no wiser on the matter.

In fact, the government media’s habit of remaining silent over issues that expose government mismanagement (thereby denying their audiences important information on pertinent issues affecting their livelihoods) also manifested itself in the way they reported problems besetting preparations for the current farming season.

Although these media reported shortages of farming inputs and implements, they treated the issues in isolation and failed to view them as symptomatic of the chaos in the agricultural sector following government’s controversial land reforms.

Neither did they fully discuss the underlying implications of the problems on the country’s food security next year.

As has become the norm, the responsibility was left to the private media.

For example, the Zimbabwe Independent (22/10) columnist Eric Bloch contended that as long as farmers had problems accessing the necessary inputs "there is no realistic prospect of Zimbabwe producing sufficient food to sustain itself next year".

The Gazette also reiterated fears that the maize seed deficit would have an adverse impact on the country’s ability to produce adequate food in the coming year.

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