THE SEIZURE of whited-owned farms in Zimbabwe through President Robert Mugabe’s land reform policy has cost the country €8.4 billion in lost agricultural output in the 10 years to 2009, the Commercial Farmers’ Union has said.
In a report released on the organisation’s website on Tuesday, the union said that based on today’s prices, total agricultural production had declined by about 70 per cent from 2000 to 2009, from 4.3 million metric tonnes, valued at €2.45 billion, to 1.35 million metric tonnes, valued at €699 million.
Union president Deon Theron maintained that the majority of land seized from white farmers in Zimbabwe had been given to supporters of Mr Mugabe’s regime, with the 86-year-old leader of the Zanu-PF party and his family members getting 39 farms between them.
“If the aim of land reform was to evict whites and replace them with blacks, then it can be deemed a success,” Mr Theron said in an annual report. “However, if the aim was to benefit the majority and not only a chosen few, then it has been a failure.”
Only 1.8 per cent of former workers on the commercial farms and their families received land under the controversial land reform scheme, which started in 2000 after independence war veterans began invading farms and taking them over, according to the union.
Corn production fell to 1.2 million metric tonnes in 2010 from 2.04 million tonnes in 2000, while dairy production fell to 31,000 tonnes from 187,000 tonnes over the same time frame, the union estimated.
The country needs about 1.4 million metric tonnes of corn to meet local demand and 450,000 tonnes of wheat. The union estimated wheat production would probably drop from 250,000 tonnes to 6,000 tonnes between 2000 and 2010.
Yesterday the UN appealed for an additional €51 million in food aid for Zimbabwe this year due to an increasing humanitarian need in the country.