News / Local
Deputy Minister denies land reform caused poor crop production
26 Oct 2015 at 07:26hrs | Views
Deputy Minister of Agriculture responsible for Live stock Paddy Zhanda has denied that the land reform programme might be the cause of food shortages in the country indicating that even before the land reform programme most of the crop production which filled the Grain Marketing Board was from communal farmers not the commercial farmers who lost the land.
Zhanda was speaking at the senate after some senate members asked him if the land reform was the resultant of the poor food production in the country.
He said historically, Zimbabwe has always relied on communal farmers producing maize to an average of 70% to 80% of all the maize before the Land Reform Programme was produced by communal farmers.
"In 1995/6, well before Land Reform, with one Agritex Officer at a ward, Zimbabwe produced 2, 6 million tonnes and of that tonnage, 1, 6 million tonnes came from communal farmers. In subsequent years, that ratio remained the same. Therefore, the issue or any insinuation that the Land Reform Programme has been the cause of less production of maize - I am afraid, it is not the case," he said.
"Probably, the Land Reform Programme was meant to address two things. Number one, to address the ownership the of land imbalance and secondly, it was also meant to decongest communal areas. The only thing that the communal farmer used to produce was wheat because small scale farmers did not have the irrigation infrastructure."
Zhanda said the issue of making sure that the farmers have produced must not solely be the responsibility of Government.
"It must also be the responsibility of all stakeholders including those companies which use maize, wheat and so forth. I will not mention by name, but if you can imagine, Mr. President, the biggest contributor to the fiscus is VAT," he said.
"It is paid by pregnant mothers from Chiendambuya, Dotito, Tsholotsho, Mukumbura and VAT is very ruthless; it does not matter whether you are sick or not, you will pay it. For us as Government, to go and take that money in order to make sure that wheat is grown on behalf of those companies which are on the Stock Exchange, with owners who are in London and France, that is not the correct thing. We are not here to subsidise. As Government, we want to see all stakeholders getting involved in financing what is used by all farmers."
Zhanda was speaking at the senate after some senate members asked him if the land reform was the resultant of the poor food production in the country.
He said historically, Zimbabwe has always relied on communal farmers producing maize to an average of 70% to 80% of all the maize before the Land Reform Programme was produced by communal farmers.
"In 1995/6, well before Land Reform, with one Agritex Officer at a ward, Zimbabwe produced 2, 6 million tonnes and of that tonnage, 1, 6 million tonnes came from communal farmers. In subsequent years, that ratio remained the same. Therefore, the issue or any insinuation that the Land Reform Programme has been the cause of less production of maize - I am afraid, it is not the case," he said.
"Probably, the Land Reform Programme was meant to address two things. Number one, to address the ownership the of land imbalance and secondly, it was also meant to decongest communal areas. The only thing that the communal farmer used to produce was wheat because small scale farmers did not have the irrigation infrastructure."
Zhanda said the issue of making sure that the farmers have produced must not solely be the responsibility of Government.
"It must also be the responsibility of all stakeholders including those companies which use maize, wheat and so forth. I will not mention by name, but if you can imagine, Mr. President, the biggest contributor to the fiscus is VAT," he said.
"It is paid by pregnant mothers from Chiendambuya, Dotito, Tsholotsho, Mukumbura and VAT is very ruthless; it does not matter whether you are sick or not, you will pay it. For us as Government, to go and take that money in order to make sure that wheat is grown on behalf of those companies which are on the Stock Exchange, with owners who are in London and France, that is not the correct thing. We are not here to subsidise. As Government, we want to see all stakeholders getting involved in financing what is used by all farmers."
Source - Byo24News
