(NEWZIMBABWE) White farmer reclaims farm
White farmer reclaims farmby Ngoni Chanakira
04/01/2011 00:00:00
AGRICULTURE Minister Herbert Murerwa has confirmed that at least one white former commercial farmer has been allowed back on his land after the government kicked out the black beneficiary for not using the property.
The white farmer – who cannot be named as authorities want to protect him from victimization by war veterans – had also been challenging the government’s acquisition of the property in the courts.
“Yes I can confirm that we gave back the farm to the white commercial farmer last year. However this was mainly because the black farmer was not farming at all,” Murerwa said in an interview.
“I want to warn all those who are not take us seriously that we will repossess their farms if they do not do anything on them expecting everything from government.”
The government has been threatening to repossess land from beneficiaries of its controversial farming reforms who are not making productive use of the land.
President Robert Mugabe recently said he was outraged to learn that some of the new farmers were giving their lands back to white ex-owners in leasehold deals under which the pairs share profits.
Some 120 evicted farmers have since returned to their properties under the lease deals.
New farmers continue to find it difficult to put their lands to productive use due to the lack of resources as financial institutions are largely reluctant to provide funding.
However, Murerwa insisted that the fact that farming was a capital intensive business was no reason to allow vast tracts of land to lie fallow.
“Yes it is very expensive to farm especially buying inputs such as fertilizers. But I can say some black farmers are doing well.
“These include Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa and Paddy Zhanda as well as President Robert Mugabe. They are doing the nation proud,” he said.
After suffering a decline over the last decade due to the reforms and droughts Zimbabwe’s agriculture is now on the recovery path.
Production of tobacco – a key export for the country – is particularly booming with thousands of small-scale farmers joining the industry.
"If you go back 10 years, we had 8,500 growers growing on average about 10 hectares each. This year we had 50,000 growing units growing on average one-and-a-third hectares," Andrew Matibiri, chief executive of the Tobacco and Marketing Industry Board (TIMB) said recently.
Export earnings from the crop are this year expected to reach US$500 million compared to the $US274 million realized last year.
Labels: HERBERT MURERWA, WHITE FARMERS
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