Posted on 09/07/2005 8:17:13 AM PDT by Clive
Harare -- Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, is facing its worst agricultural season since independence in 1980, with shortages of seed, fertilizer and equipment threatening next year's harvest before it even has been planted, farmers and other experts said.
Some of those warnings were issued in testimony before Parliament's agriculture committee, the state-run Herald newspaper and ruling party-allied Daily Mirror reported Wednesday.
Fertilizer companies told the committee that their warehouses were empty. The Zimbabwe Seed Traders Association said there are only 28,660 tonnes of corn seed in the country, slightly more than half of what is needed.
The Agricultural Dealers and Manufacturers' Association has run out of plow disks for the first time in its history. There also are key shortages of irrigation piping, pumps, pesticides and other chemicals, suppliers said.
"The information you have given us simply shows that there is no season," committee chairman Walter Mzembi was quoted as saying.
The seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans, on top of years of drought, has crippled Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy. About four million people will need food aid before the next harvest in what was once a regional breadbasket, UN estimates indicate.
"This coming season's production prospects are the worst since 1980 independence due to inputs shortages and the lack of a strong message to allow all farmers to produce with confidence," Doug Taylor-Freeme, president of the mostly white Commercial Farmers Union, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
President Robert Mugabe's government says it has settled 300,000 black families on formerly white-owned farms, but UN agencies report that many are derelict, with irrigation and housing vandalized, and livestock stolen or slaughtered.
Mr. Mugabe has promised $287-million in assistance to black farmers.
But Edward Raradza, vice-president of the black Zimbabwe Farmers' Union, said 60 per cent of the funds advanced by the government for cropping had not reached their intended beneficiaries. His organization represents 800,000 families in communal farming areas.
"There have been too many middlemen," testified Wilfanos Mashingaidze, chairman of the Tobacco Growers' Trust. "The resources from government are going down the drain. They are disappearing like mist."
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Darn that drought.
The Tragedy of the Commons.
Gosh, you think shooting the farmers has something to do with this?
Let 'em eat cake!
Obviously it's time to shoot all the Kulaks.
Ah yes, the power of Adam Smith's Karl Marx's invisible hand-outs, soon to be increased in a state near us.
Am I getting warm?
Here is a unique historical case where a nations "majority" (in numbers) seemed to have supported the rise in power of thier (soon to be) dictator by "popular demand."
This is absolutely not something America should waste time, money or resources on. If ever there were a case of a nation that needed to fix itself this is one.
That said, when Mugabe does finally transform his country into a security threat to his neighbors, we will end up stepping into "help." I predict that security forces will have to be called in to restore peice in October of 2011.
The obvious solution is to kick all of the remaining white devils out of Zim immediately. Yeah, that will fix it! Paradise from then on.
Notice that the AP has to slant it still. They carefully avoid telling you that there was never any shortage when the country was controlled by whites.
If only their great-great-grandparents had been lucky enough to make it to the new world. /sarcasm, sort-of
Every liberal in the world is now standing on their heads.
Until a few years ago,Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of southern Africa,along with SA.My guess is that the ANC leadership in SA is looking at the current Zimbabwean "miracle" with much envy.
Oooopppss warm fuzzy socialism not working again!!
Surprise, surprise, surprise.
Perhaps if the people don't want to starve, they should get some sharp sticks and axes and institute some political reforms.
The country had a vibrant economy until James Callaghan and Jimmy Carter conspired to topple the government there. Those two men deserve full credit for each baby that starves.
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