(TALKZIMBABWE) Land is the only source of wealth, Zim journos told

Land is the only source of wealth, Zim journos told
This article was written by Professor Tshuma and Fungai Hungwe in BEIJING on 11 September, at 03 : 02 AM

LAND has been described as the only source of wealth a country can give to its people and a call has been made to the farmers in Zimbabwe to fully utilise the land which they got from their Government in order to boost productivity and ensure food security.

Delivering a lecture through an interpreter at a local hotel to Zimbabwean journalists from both public and private media in Beijing last week, Professor Sun Qi Ming who is at China University of Post and Telecommunications said China realised its economic growth and stability through the distribution of land to the indigenous people.

He said agriculture was the backbone of China’s economy and Zimbabwe must draw lessons from the Asian country which has registered a success story through the agrarian land redistribution.

“Land is the only source of wealthy a country can give to its people and this was proved when China gave land to its people after the revolution which ended in 1949,” he said.

Prof Sun was quick to applaud Zimbabwe for taking back land from the former colonisers, who were the minority group, saying it was good to take the action and that the exercise must yield better results through improvements on the economy.

He said Governments must fund agriculture extensively saying Zimbabwe with its vast potential in the agricultural sector and can surpass China in the near future if it sufficiently funds the sector.

China, he said, after successfully winning the war in 1949, went on to fulfil its promises to its people to distribute land to the landless farmers, thus the Communist Party of China (CPC) still enjoys mandate in China because it quickly fulfilled its promise.

He said the successful and timely redistribution of land saw China enjoying a continuous and gradual economic growth of 30 consecutive years since 1978.

“Government should help farmers with farming equipment and inputs for the realisation and achievement of thunderous yield.

“The farmers should have the technical know-how of land utilisation in order to compliment Government efforts in ensuring food security,” he said.

Prof Sun said China, after the land reform, began to have excess grain which it had to export to other markets for foreign currency.

The land redistribution in China was initially received with different views as some locals opposed it vehemently until at a time when it came to fruitition.

Successful land reform in the Asian country has seen China, who has 22 percent population of world population and sitting on only seven percent land, managing to produce enough grain for its people and exporting surplus to other countries.