Goverment pledges to support small farms, as land attacks continue

By Alex Bell
13 July 2009

Finance Minister Tendai Biti on Friday pledged more than US$140 million for small farmers, in an effort to reverse the effects of Robert Mugabe’s land resettlement scheme and ultimately promote food production.

Millions of Zimbabweans are set to face critical food shortages this year, and reports by the United Nations World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organisation indicate that Zimbabwe is in for its lowest ever winter-wheat harvest. Biti said the multi-million dollar pledge, set to be worked into the next budget, would help counter years of agricultural decline, which has been the trend since the inception of Mugabe’s land ‘reform’ programme in 2000.

Ironically however, Biti’s pledge comes as the ongoing crackdown against existing commercial farmers continues unabated. The often-violent offensive to remove the remaining white farmers off their land was renewed this year, despite the formation of the unity government. Food production as a result has been all but halted on all productive farms, which is a critical violation of the Global Political Agreement that said food production should be encouraged.

Meanwhile, as the investment conference got under way last week, there were fresh attacks against farmers in Nyamandlovu. Our correspondent Lionel Saungweme explained that the farmers are too afraid to speak publicly about their ordeals, for fear of retribution. Saungweme continued that there have been various other cases of harassment against sugar cane farmers, and the legal offensive against landowners has also continued.

“These attacks are state sponsored and politically motivated and all role players in the new government know what is happening,” Saungweme said.

With agriculture as the key to getting Zimbabwe’s economy working again, the unity government hoped that last week’s investment conference would persuade potential investors to put their money into agriculture, as well as into other sectors such as mining, manufacturing and tourism. But the conference has been met with mixed reaction, with many observers saying the event failed to raise critical investor confidence in the country. Most investors were apparently taken aback by the apparent discord among the country’s political leaders, while Mugabe’s commitment to the land ‘reform’ programme also raised serious concern.

Mugabe passionately defended the scheme, telling delegates, in response to a question on farm compensation, that ‘not necessarily’ every white farm would be seized under his ongoing land ‘reform’ programme. He also insisted that compensation for land was not the government’s responsibility, but was instead up to the British to foot the bill. And despite clear evidence to the contrary, he maintained he had a real commitment to property rights.