New black farmers under vicious attack

via New black farmers under vicious attack 19 October 2014

ZIMBABWE’S black commercial farmers who benefited from the government’s controversial land reforms about 14 years ago have come under attack once again for failing to turn around the fortunes of the country’s agriculture sector.

Manicaland Agricultural Show Society President, Engineer Jackson Njunga, said A2 farmers were a disappointing lot after they failed to take part in the annual show for three consecutive years.

He said the Manicaland Agriculture show has of late been receiving support from small-scale farmers who have become a common feature every year.

“Small-scale farmers have proved to be people with the capacity to produce for the country. They have managed to be part of this exhibition every year to showcase their prowess. Sadly, large-scale commercial farmers have not been supportive,” said Njunga.

The show which was held under the theme: ZimAsset: creating a platform for economic take off, was marred by poor attendance by both exhibitors and locals.

Although Njunga said there was a marked increase in the number of exhibitors as compared to last year the situation on the ground proved otherwise. Most stands were occupied by food vendors.

A local agronomist, Terry Mudzana, said most of the A2 farmers did not have capacity to produce for the country.

He said those who had the opportunity to grab the land were keeping it as “trophies”. He advised the government to revisit the land reform programme and allocate land to those with the capacity to revamp the sector.

“We are saying this is a typical example of failure. We cannot have an agriculture exhibition with only small-scale farmers. We expect commercial farmers to come aboard with livestock, dairy products and crop production but the case is vice-versa,” said Mudzana.

Most of the livestock commercial farms mainly in Chipinge and Nyanga were decimated when war veterans and top Zanu PF politicians went on the rampage and grabbed white-owned commercial farms and estates.

President Robert Mugabe’s government defended the land seizures as necessary to correct a historical injustice that has seen most of the country’s fertile land in the hands of about 4 000 white farmers while black Zimbabweans remained landless.

Critics accuse Mugabe of seizing the former white-owned farms and parcelling them to his cronies, a charge he denies.

Mugabe’s controversial land reforms triggered massive food shortages and an economic crisis from which the country is still battling to recover.