Land programme affecting agricultural output - Makoni

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development Simba Makoni has warned that the government’s controversial fast-track land programme had contributed to a decline in agricultural output, the private ‘Daily News’ reported on Monday.

Speaking in Parliament last Thursday, Makoni said the decline in output was because of “sub-optimal operational conditions on farms affected by the fast track resettlement programme”, high input costs, the mid-season dry spell and floods caused by Cyclone Eline, as well as belated payments to farmers by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB). Large-scale farmers had also reduced the area planted with maize by 54 percent. Makoni said the 2001 budget would now have to accommodate unavoidable additional expenditures on drought and food relief, especially maize and wheat imports, to make up for shortfalls.