ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwean farmer strives to survive with insufficient government support

Record ID: 455716

  • Title: ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwean farmer strives to survive with insufficient government support
  • Date: 23rd February 2009
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF CHUDUKU SEATED WITH FAMILY AT TABLE IN GARDEN
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Zimbabwe
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Topics: General,Economic News
  • Reuters ID: LVA9EIVIBK1MKG6R2A4T2AHIUAQ8
  • Story Text: Zimbawean farmer makesmeet despite a lack of government supplies of mechanical farm equipment.
    In Mazowe, one of the large farming areas of Zimbabwe, a black commercial farmer, Jacks Chiduku, is managing to carry out his farming activities with minimum help from the Zimbabwe government.
    As the farming season in Zimbabwe draws to an end, many Zimbabwean farmers will not be expecting bumper harvests because they did not get basic inputs such as seeds and fertilizers from the government.
    Some farmers failed to benefit from the government mechanization programme which gave out the much needed farm equipment.
    "In terms of support from the government, yes I got support of fuel and fertilizer and chemicals. But in terms of mechanization which is the major thing, because you cannot farm without any tractors, you cannot farm without any equipment, you cannot farm without your spraying rackets, and this is what I needed most, I didn't get anything from the government and it's been very difficult because the equipment that I use now it's as good as dead," Chiduku said.
    The commercial farmer who is leasing a farm of 450 hectares, where he carries out crop farming, employs over 100 people.
    Farm manager on Chiduki's farm Cannaan Chidzenga respects his boss.
    "He is treating us very well. I think with other workers we work well, even myself as the manager we are working very well. He will give some instructions, he will give me some time to think on my own without rush," Chizenga said.
    Chiduku, who has been leasing the farm for eight years, says it is not part of the land reform programme.
    The southern African country's once-thriving farms have spiralled downward since the year 2000, when a dozen white farmers were shot dead and many others were beaten when war veterans violently seized white-owned commercial farms as part of President Robert Mugabe's policy of land redistribution.
    Critics say this policy ruined farming because many of the landless blacks had little or no experience in agriculture, and the World Food Programme says more than half of the country's population faces starvation unless they get food aid.
    Mugabe denies that the land seizures ruined the country's economy and says they were meant to reverse colonial land imbalances.
    Zimbabwe's farming sector faces collapse and chances of reviving it hinge on an elusive deal to forge a unity government that could trigger investment in the sector, according to a farm union.
    South African farmers have said they would be willing to help lure investors to Zimbabwean agriculture if a new government can resuscitate the stagnant sector.
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