ZIMBABWE
Mugabe calls for more food produce

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday called on beneficiaries of his government's land reforms to work harder on farms to avert food shortages, at a ceremony ahead of this month's elections.

He said government investment in farm equipment "should see us greatly reduce the incidence of food shortages in future".

"What now remains is for every farmer to roll up their sleeves and till the land for the prosperity of our motherland Zimbabwe," he added at the ceremony in Harare, where he commissioned equipment to be distributed to fledgling farmers.

"Then we would have lived up to the theme of our election campaign which enjoins us to defend our land and national sovereignty."

Mugabe urged supporters to back his ruling party in general elections on 29 March, vowing to forge ahead with his controversial land policies and pledging to continue with programmes to support farmers and disadvantaged rural communities.

"We just don't want to win," he said. "We want to win resoundingly so that the British can feel the heat that they have been beaten at it.

"Whatever the adversity, the harsh effects of sanctions, the machinations of our enemies ... we are on a march never to surrender."

Britain, the former colonial power in Zimbabwe, has pursued a hard line against Mugabe's regime. Both the United States and European Union imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle after they alleged that he had rigged his re-election in 2002.

In Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of southern Africa, at least 4.1 million people — nearly a third of the population — are in need of food aid, according to the UN's World Food Programme.

Reserve bank chief Gideon Gono called on the farmers to produce more to avoid the importation of food which, he said, was one of the major drivers of the country's runaway inflation now officially over 100 000 percent.

He said on Saturday the central bank paid out $15-million to a neighbouring country for the supply of additional maize.

In December, the bank bought 150 000 tonnes of maize for $28-million.

Harare blames the shortfall on drought, but critics put much of the blame on its agricultural policy begun eight years ago.

Often violent land reforms saw the seizures of at least 4000 properties formerly run by white farmers for redistribution to landless blacks, the majority of whom lacked the skills and means to farm.

The equipment to be given to the new farmers includes combine harvesters, tractors, ploughs, motorcycles, electricity generators and grinding mills.

The government is also giving the farmers cattle to increase the depleted national herd.

AFP

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