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(NEWZIMBABWE) Food imports embarrassing: Nkomo

Food imports embarrassing: Nkomo
05/08/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

VICE President John Nkomo has said Zimbabwe must produce enough grain to meet its needs within two years to bring an end to the “perennial embarrassment” of surviving on food imports .

Nkomo told a field day in Murehwa that Zanu PF had established a production and labour department to lead efforts to boost agricultural production and end costly imports of grain from the region.

“We want to end the embarrassment of perennially surviving on food imports from such countries as Malawi and Zambia that used to depend on us for their food security,” Nkomo said in a speech read by a senior Zanu PF official.

“They have even been learning from us, so we cannot stand that reality of importing food from them, yet we have the human resources to turn around everything and start producing competitively.”

The United Nations World Food Programme recently said about 1.6 million of the country's estimated 12 million people would need food aid this year due to poor harvests.

The number is 60 percent higher than the one million who needed food assistance last year, with most of them living in rural areas.

Once a regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe has faced perennial food shortages in recent years following a slump in food production partly blamed on President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms.

The majority of the beneficiaries of the reforms lacked the skills and means for large-scale farming, and were given little support from the government.
But Nkomo said the farmers must stop coming up with excuses and start making productive use of the land.

“The land was the major reason we waged the liberation war, yet 32 years after independence, people have not yet started fully exploiting it,” he said.

“Yes, for the majority it is a matter of failing to access resources, but there has to be the individual effort and innovation to boost productivity and justify the implementation of the agrarian revolution.”

Dzikamai Mavhaire, Zanu PF secretary for production added: “The time for slogans and singing war songs has since passed. What we are facing now is a new but different war.

“It is a war whose weapon is the hoe, so we must act like real business people. Zanu PF will not tolerate laziness.”

Labels: FOOD, JOHN NKOMO

posted by MrK @ 2:19 PM