Zimbabwe will start paying partial compensation to white farmers after 4 000 were stripped of their land under former president Robert Mugabe

A Zimbabwean white farmers’ organisation said they had seen a "renewed onslaught" of farm seizures and attacks.

At least 16 white farmers in Zimbabwe have come under attack over the last week, a farmers’ union said on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe may have to import more than half the maize it needs this year to cover a deficit, a farmers’ group said on Monday.

Zimbabwe faces another huge food deficit in 2009 due to continued falls in farm production, a report by a farmers’ union said on Wednesday.

Armed groups attacked and seriously wounded at least three white farmers in Zimbabwe after last Friday’s run-off presidential election.