Posted on 11/01/2005 4:04:03 AM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
HARARE – Zimbabwe on Tuesday launched its strongest criticism of black farmers who had benefited from its controversial land reforms, saying their apathy was responsible for a serious food crisis.
“We have a few people that are really committed to production while many others are doing nothing on the farms,” Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Sylvester Nguni was quoted as saying by the state-owned Herald newspaper. “The problem is that we gave land to people lacking the passion for farming and this is why every year production has been declining.”
He said although an ongoing drought had contributed to reduced yields, “the biggest letdown has been that people without the slightest idea of farming got land and the result has been declining agricultural output.”
Zimbabwe’s land reforms, which began, often violently, in 2000 after the rejection in a referendum of a government-sponsored draft constitution, have seen some 4 000 white farmers lose their properties. Seized land has been distributed to landless blacks in a move that the government has said is designed to correct imbalances created by colonial rule, when the majority of prime farmland was owned by some 4 500 whites.
But critics of the land reforms say most beneficiaries lack farming knowledge and depend on government handouts while others were sitting on fallow land. - Sapa-AFP.
Ping
I bet no one saw this coming...
Finally sunk in that thick skull, I see. Give the man a prize...
Well, duh!
Here is another suggestion right up your alley:
Declare all the land property of the state/people, and set up a collective farming system. LOL!
This guy's sharp, I'll tell you what...
Shocking
Excellent Idea! Lets round up some white prize holders and redistribute the Prizes.....
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oh, wait a minute....
"But critics of the land reforms say most beneficiaries lack farming knowledge and depend on government handouts while others were sitting on fallow land."
Even if you lack the knowledge, wouldn't you seek advice from your neighbor and LEARN? Let's see; buying seeds, planting, and watering would be a beginning. Sell off a portion of your land to fund the beginning of your farming operation. Depending on govenment handouts speaks volumes (a la New Orleans and a segment in south Florida most recently).
Lack the passion to farm - how about lack the brains to farm.
Well you can always call the World Food Bank like most African run African countries do.
You cant seek advice from your neighbor when he is an idiot too.
This story is great, I would have thought they would blame the white farmers for salting the land when they left.Maybe they havent thought of that one yet. Give them time---they will.
That's what happens when you take the land from professional farmers and give it to subsistance farmers.
But, but, but, I thought everything would be better once we got rid of all of the white farmers and took their land?
why should they farm when you are going to come steal all their crops?
I suspect this is the last we'll hear from that government official. Candor like that simply cannot be tolerated.
Stop thinking like a scumbag white capitalist slave owning pig, and colonial oppressor of the black African community.
Communists don't understand capitalism.
Who would "buy" land in a country that takes it from you whenever it wants to?
Zimbabwe needs to plant "Darwin at work" signs -
Give a communist a pen and a piece of paper and he'll write something stupid.
Give a communist a shovel and a bag of seed and he'll starve.
Apparently the new "farmers" are given chits for subsidized fuel for tractors &c - and they find selling the subsidy coupons more profitable than farming. Less work, too . . .Sell off a portion of your land to fund the beginning of your farming operation.
Sure, there's plenty of white farmers who'll buy it! </sarcasm>Actually, who would buy a title to land so recently expropriated??
How do you know it won't be expropriated from you??
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