By Savious Kwinika

BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE:
DYING of self inflicted wounds is how best to describe
the manner President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF
government has destroyed Zimbabwe's agricultural
sector, long hailed as the nation's economic backbone
leaving over five million people facing starvation.

While millions of villagers in the countryside face
imminent starvation and over 160 others have been
officially confirmed as having died of malnutrition in
the country's second largest city of Bulawayo, the
otherwise reputable dairy and beef production is not
spared the rot either as agriculture, continues to
nosedive.

What started as an expedient campaigning tool to win
the dwindling political support from urban and rural
folk turned into a nightmare as over five million
people in the southern African nation face starvation
today with hunger biting deeper.

The unwitting destruction of the then prestigious
agricultural economy, has thrown an estimated 500 000
workers in livestock, crop farming and husbandry out
of their jobs.

As The African Star reporter in Zimbabwe, Savious
Kwinika looks on how the Zanu PF government has
destroyed the country's economic backbone files this
report .

It took 20 years for the governing Zanu PF's politburo
and central committee members to destroy the thriving
agricultural sector built over decades through
deplorable actions of misrule compounded by
lawlessness in a desperate bid to regain dwindling
political support.

Now in its worst state ever, the beef and dairy
industry, which used to rake in US $3,2 billion in
foreign currency annually during the heydays when
Zimbabwe was Southern Africa Development Community
(SADC) breadbasket are seriously threatened with
collapse due to President Mugabe's disastrous land
reform program.

To date, the country's biggest milk processor,
Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited, is failing to acquire the
required quantity of milk for both domestic
consumption and for export as the dairy herds have
been slaughtered by independence war veterans and
militant Zanu PF supporters during the bloody and
chaotic land invasions.

But as one commercial farmer, Keith Harvey would put
it in 1992 during the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU)
congress: "We Africans must accept the fact that our
continent is slowly dying. It is dying of
self-inflicted wounds and man is undoubtedly the
culprit."

The current economic instability more directly
compounds the loss of business confidence among the
farmers still operating with serious constraints such
as low commodity prices, unaffordable farming inputs,
high interest charges, and exchange rates which do not
ensure viable returns for exporters all act in concert
to stifle production.

Speaking to The African Star on Monday, Southern Africa
Commercial Farmers Alliance President, Mac Crawford,
remembers how he lost over 1 200 cattle to both Zanu
PF sympathizers and war veterans during the height of
land invasions sanctioned by Mugabe and his Zanu PF
politburo.

"Before the land reform program I had more than 1 200
cattle but today I have only 200 cattle due to actions
of saboteurs, who slaughtered my livestock during the
land reform program.

"Today, the country is faced with serious food
shortages. If there are no urgent measures now to save
the few existing dairy and beef herd then we are in
great trouble because these two key areas are on the
verge of extinction with the dairy industry being the
severely affected," said Crawford.

He remembers in the early 1980s and 1990s when the
agricultural sector, particularly the livestock
industry, comprising beef and dairy sectors used to
rake in an average of US$3 billion per year.

But due to the free-for-all land grab sanctioned by
the government the country's plum foreign currency
spinning industry has crashed with a loud bang.

Crawford says suspected war veterans and Zanu PF
followers were so excited and enjoying every minute of
life when they trapped white owned beef and dairy herd
without knowing about the repercussions.

He says the agricultural sector, which is now
"bleeding profusely" as a result of lawlessness that
occurred during the height of land grab, adding that
it would require over 10 years of massive herd
rebuilding exercise to rekindle both beef livestock
and dairy industries which need bringing back to their
feet.

During chaotic land-grab white commercial farmers'
homes were taken by force, farming implements
confiscated from them, while beef and dairy cattle
slaughtered for meat in the farms.

Little did the povo (villagers) and the war veterans
know or bother about the consequences. Now the
chickens have come home to roost and the nation is
facing serious challenges from four fronts.

"Right now the country is importing everything from
wheat, maize, fruits and the whole lot of other foods
from abroad yet we used to supply the rest of SADC
region.

"Our own white farmers whom we pushed out of the
country have shone like a beacon in Zambia, Mozambique
and Nigeria," says Crawford.

"As I speak to you right now, the same white farmers
we chucked off of their prime land have done wonders
in Zambia where for the first time in 10 years our
northern neighbours would export maize to starving
nations such as Zimbabwe. These are the same
commercial farmers we ridiculed and frustrated in
Zimbabwe."

Gerry Whitehead, a commercial farmer in Chiredzi says
the only way beef and dairy industry would re-flourish
in Zimbabwe is when the nation gets rid of Mugabe and
Zanu PF.

"Once we have rid ourselves of Mugabe and Zanu PF,
with law and order established there will be a quick
improvement in the agriculture sector especially with
seasonal food crops.

"Fine, government is giving billions of dollars to the
so-called new farmers but this money is not given to
experienced farmers, so will not reap the intended
benefits. What is happening here is typical of when a
despot does away with democratic rule to stay in
power.

"We were never beggars before and when we have a
democratically elected government, we all will work as
a nation to achieve this status again but at the
moment we have to prepare for a famine because Zanu PF
is incapable of getting anything right, there is too
much corruption now," says Whitehead.


Zimbabwe, which is now sorely missing the expertise of
4 000 plus white commercial farmers used to have a
total national herd estimated at 4 415 000 but since
the disruptive and controversial land reform program
kick-started, the country now has less than 1 500 000
herd.

Frequent outbreaks of foot and mouth disease have
taken their toll while the remaining herd is fast
dwindling or facing collapse due to tick borne
diseases owing to government failure to provide
adequate veterinary services and drugs.

What started a genuine cause to settle the land-short
villagers assumed political dimensions in 2000 when
the country's main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) unexpectedly clinched 57 seats in general
elections, sending shockwaves in the ruling Zanu PF
and forcing it to panic into making ill-thought
decisions.


Bulawayo based economist and economic consultant, Eric
Bloch, says the country's agriculture will not improve
until such a time the government restructures its
chaotic and controversial land reform program.

"Otherwise if the restructuring of the land reform
program has not taken shape, then the nation shall
continue importing grain from elsewhere.

The way the government implemented the land program
was disastrous. The country lost experienced farmers
with resources and skill.

There are no two ways about it, we have to restart the
implementation of the land program otherwise the
so-called sabotaging by white farmers is
utter-rubbish, Bloc says.

"It is absolute rubbish to suggest that the white
farmers sabotaged the dairy and beef industry yet the
real culprit is the government. The government
blundered and everybody is paying for the government
sins."

In his speech at the farmers' congress CFU president,
Dough Taylor Freeme, said restoring the collapsed
agriculture performance would bring in more foreign
exchange for further development.

The controversial land reform program spilled to the
Lowveld in Chiredzi where war veterans, top government
officials, ministers and Zanu PF gurus also invaded
the sugar plantations giving themselves portions of
cane fields.

At one point, Anglo-American Corporation (AAC), owners
of the giant sugar producing estates dragged the
government to the courts over its controversial land
reform program that spilled into their farm. The
matter was to be resolved after the government noticed
signs of sugar scarcity in the country.

Ends....