No seed = no harvest. Can someone tell these idiots in zanupf.
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Seed shortage cripples Zimbabwe farming season
Zim Online
by by Farisai Gonye Monday 17 December 2007
HARARE - Zimbabwe's defense department has told President Robert Mugabe
that
it can do little to revive food production in the face of a shortage of
seeds that is hampering planting operations, authoritative sources told
ZimOnline.
Mugabe has put the army in charge of agricultural production under a
programme codenamed Operation Maguta aimed at boosting food production and
end hunger stalking Zimbabwe for the past seven years.
Under the programme soldiers have deployed at large farms across the
country
to produce strategic crops such as maize and wheat, the country's main
staples.
However, army commanders running the programme are said to have re****ted
to
Defence Minister Sydney Sekermayi that Zimbabwe faced worse food shortages
next year because a shortage of seed and resources for tillage had all but
dashed hopes of a successful farming season.
"In turn, Sekeramayi sounded the warning bells to Mugabe that ZANU-PF
risked
going into next year's elections facing an even worse food crisis. He told
him the farming could go to waste," said a military officer who is part of
Operation Maguta.
Sekeremayi refused to take questions on the matter when contacted at the
weekend. "I am too busy to be talking to re****ters," the Defence Minister
said before switching off his mobile phone.
Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba was not immediately available for
comment
on the matter.
Zimbabwe, also grappling with its worst economic crisis, has faced severe
food shortages since 2000.
For example, international relief agencies says an estimated three million
people or about a quarter of the country's 12 million population in need
of
food aid this year, while the World Food Programme (WFP) last week said
Zimbabwe was among seven hot spots in the world where conflict has led to
widespread hunger.
Strife-torn Somalia, Afghanistan, Chad, Sudan, the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK), and Bangladesh were the other countries where
the
relief agency said it had to regularly step in with food aid or thousands
of
people would starve.
Critics blame Zimbabwe 's food crisis directly on Mugabe's haphazard
fast-track land reform exercise that displaced established white
commercial
farmers and replaced them with either incompetent or inadequately funded
black farmers.
Food production plunged by about 60 percent as a result while chaos in
agriculture because of farm seizures also hit hard Zimbabwe's once
impressive manufacturing sector that had depended on a robust farming
sector
for orders and inputs.
Most of Zimbabwe's industries have since the beginning of farm seizures in
2000 either scaled down operations to about 30 percent of capacity or
shutdown altogether, in a country where unemployment is more than 80
percent.
According to our sources, Sekeramayi raised the following points with
Mugabe:
..That since the onset of rains two weeks ago, less than a third of
commercial and small scale farmers had started any planting because of a
serious shortage of seed and tillage resources. The situation was worse
among poor villagers.
..That the country had secured only 15 000 tons of seed maize instead of
the
required 50 000 tons. That seed shortages were more acute for soya beans,
a
key crop used for stock feeds and cooking oils among other products.
..That even those farmers that had secured seed and had planted grains
faced
low yields because of an acute shortage of compound fertilizers used for
basal application when planting. Soldiers were only distributing Urea, a
top
dressing fertilizer only helpful after germination.
..Urged Mugabe's intervention to ensure that seed manufacturers were paid
market prices to entice them to supply seed to the local market instead of
ex****ting the product to more lucrative regional markets.
..That the country was forced to im****t maize and soya bean seed from
neighboring countries, yet local seed houses were ex****ting the same seed
to
the same neighboring countries. Raised a possibility that the country was
im****ting at a higher cost seed ex****ted by local firms.
..Urged Mugabe's intervention in ensuring that the central bank released
enough foreign currency to im****t seed to make up for shortfalls. Cited
that
only 3 000 tons of the anticipated 15 000 tonnes of im****ted seed had
arrived in the country. Emphasized that even the 15 000 tonnes were not
enough to meet demand.
The sources say Mugabe promised to look into the issues raised by
Sekeramayi. ZimOnline.
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