Farm seizures cut maize output by 40 percent

Zimbabwe’s Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU), representing white farmers, said this week that maize output from Zimbabwe’s commercial farming sector will drop by 40 percent in the 2001 season, the ‘Financial Gazette’ reported on Thursday. The projected drop was due to disruption to farming by ruling ZANU-PF party supporters and war veterans who have occupied farms.

CFU president Tim Henwood said ZANU-PF followers were preventing farmers and their workers from planting at a critical time, hence the sharp decline in the forecast maize production. “All what we are calling for is for the police to act in line with the Supreme Court order and remove the illegal settlers and let farmers continue with their work under a conducive atmosphere,” he said.

Commercial farmers produce on average one million tons of the staple maize a season in a country that consumes about 1.8 million tons annually. The rest is produced by mainly-black communal farmers. The CFU said that farmers must effectively make use of the next three weeks to plant cotton, maize and soya beans. Failure to do so could trigger severe food shortages next year, the union said.