The realisation of promises by the government of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe of a record crop yield during this summer’s farming season will not be met, the country’s agriculture minister admitted on Friday.
In October, the government declared that the summer would result in ”the mother of all agricultural seasons”, which would reverse the record of poor food production over the last five years, break the economic crisis ravaging the country and restore economic prosperity.
”The season has not been as spectacular as we had expected,” Minister Rugare Gumbo said in Friday’s edition of the state-controlled Herald. He admitted for the first time that the government had failed to supply enough fertiliser to farmers, but also blamed heavy rains.
”I would like to acknowledge the shortages of top-dressing fertilisers [applied later in the season to grown plants],” he said, while the Herald referred to ”the little fertiliser” that had been used when planting began at the start of the season.
Until 2000, Zimbabwe was one of two African countries — with South Africa — that consistently produced harvests that met domestic demand and surplus for export to famine-stricken African countries.
However, international agencies say that a violent campaign led by Mugabe of seizures of land owned by the country’s white commercial farmers wrecked the agricultural industry and set off an economic collapse that includes hyperinflation now estimated at about 50 000%.
Late last year, the government launched a dramatic agricultural mechanisation plan that included spending $25-million to import 1 000 new tractors as well as combine harvesters and modern agricultural implements and overseeing the local production of 50 000 ox-drawn ploughs and implements.
Gumbo also announced that the government had ”secured enough seed, fertiliser, agricultural implements and fuel” to guarantee ”massive output” that would restore ”our status as Southern Africa’s breadbasket”.
However, at the beginning of the season, farmer organisations complained that fertiliser and fuel were impossible to obtain, except for senior ruling-party bosses. Seed companies said by mid-December, when most planting should have been done, only 65% of the seed required had been distributed.
In recent weeks, allegations of corruption have emerged in the country’s Parliament over the issue of contracts for the import of tractors, while human rights agencies said two weeks ago that ruling-party officials were using the ox-drawn ploughs as a bribe ahead of national elections due in March, and distributing them only to farmers who could produce ruling-party cards.
A report by the state agricultural extension organisation, issued on Friday, cited widespread ”stunting” of the crop of maize — the national staple — around the country because of insufficient fertiliser.
”The climate was very unpredictable as we received more rains than we expected and this ended up affecting agricultural production,” Gumbo said. He urged farmers to use traditional fertilisers – cattle dung and the soil of anthills – instead of chemical fertilisers.
Every year since 2002, Western relief agencies have distributed food around the country to avert widespread famine. The World Food Programme estimates that four million people — nearly half the population — will need to be fed in the next few months. — Sapa-dpa