Posted on 03/05/2007 10:15:34 AM PST by blam
Zimbabwe new farmers to lose aid
Subsistence farmers will continue to get subsidies
Zimbabwe's government says it intends to end state subsidies for black-owned commercial farms resettled under its controversial land reform policy. Farmers allocated prime land over the past seven years should by now have enough experience to be self-financing, the Central Bank governor said.
New farmers have been warned they could lose land if it is not used properly.
Zimbabwe's food production has plummeted since land reforms that saw thousands of white-owned farms seized.
The US-based Famine Early Warning System warned in January that Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of southern Africa, was facing a maize shortfall of some 700,000 tonnes this year.
'Grown-ups'
Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono told a farmers' meeting that funds for the commercial farmers would be stopped at the end of this year.
"It is now seven years since we reclaimed our land but we continue looking at government for support. Next season we will wean off all A2 [large-scale] farmers as they are now grown-ups," Zimbabwe's Herald newspaper quotes him as saying.
He accused the commercial farmers of failing to repay loans and selling subsidies received from the government.
However, he said the government would continue to fund subsistence farmers.
During his visit to the northern Mashonaland Central province, Mr Gono was told that some farmers had lost their crops because fertiliser and subsidies had reached them late, the Herald reports.
Earlier, Didymus Mutasa - the minister in charge of land reform - repeated a warning that commercial farmers would lose their land if they did not use it efficiently.
President Robert Mugabe launched his agricultural reform programme with the aim of redressing economic imbalances left over from British colonial rule.
But critics say the often violent campaign has devastated Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy.
As well as chronic unemployment, Zimbabwe has the world's lowest life expectancy and highest inflation rate.
This is a replay of Mao's earliest efforts and his entire career of killing and destroying.
I am reading the new Mao book.
This is a classic example of how to take a nation that exports food to one that promotes starvation. Absolutely classic. Beautiful!!
"Thanks to me, everyone is poor and starving, but at least there aren't any more imbalances. Find out what KleptoMarxism (tm) can do for YOU!"
"Farmers allocated prime land over the past seven years should by now have enough experience to be self-financing"
Ha! They haven't planted a damned thing.
Classic example of the RATs socialist philosophy of relying on the govt and the complete and utter failure thereof.
Classic Commie playbook.
Get support from the peasants by promising them their own land.
Seize the land, then collectivize the farms, and kill the Kulaks, who actually knew how to farm their land at a profit.
Do we have to take their inflation rate, unemployment rate and starvation rate as well?
Our culture would know what to do with a government-free economy. Zimbabwe has never known our level of propsperity. Comparing us to them is comparing apples and oranges.
This doesn't mean anyone who knows anything about economics has been asked about this, it only means the government has run out of money to lend. They could, of course, simply print more - it's worked so well so far...
Rhodesia was a very profitable country, so yes, Zimbabwe did have a healthy economy with a lot of freedom.
Not saying subsidies are a good thing, just don't think that following the ideas of Mugabe is a wise way to get people to your side.
This whole situation in Zimbabwe can be blamed on liberas who destroyed white rule.
These people cannot raise food on this land because they dont know how , Its as simple as that.
It's really criminal what Mugabe has done to that beautiful country and people. But his thuggish buddies in the UN and OAU continue to give him cover.
Jimmy Carter's model for Paradise.
Trying to farm over 200 acres of land without the aid of machinery or pesticides and fertilizer is ludicrous. Especially when the 'farmer' is ignorant of farming.
Fabulous. It explains a lot about Mao. It could be called The Myth of Mao. He makes Stalin look compassionate in comparison.
It worked in Ethiopa too - like a charm.
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