News / National
Mugabe castigates A2 farmers for underutilising land
23 Mar 2015 at 07:04hrs | Views
President Mugabe yesterday castigated A2 farmers for underutilising land and said Government will soon undertake an audit to ensure that land is fully utilised.
Speaking to thousands of Catholics and other people who attended Kutama Mission centenary celebrations in Zvimba, President Mugabe said he was disappointed with A2 farmers whom he said were using land as some kind of status symbol.
"We feel that the land issue has helped us to ameliorate the unemployment levels of our people and some of our young men are now reaping tobacco, cotton, although with regards to cotton there has been some reduction in the volume of production. But in tobacco the volumes are going up and rewarding our youngsters and it is more our young men who are in the A1 system and the A1 system is the one we rely upon most for food even yielding greater quantities of maize," said President Mugabe.
He said the A2 farmers were giving Government trouble and an audit was needed to establish how each farmer was faring.
"It is turning out now that quite a good many of those who got farms on the A2 system are not running them," said President Mugabe. "The farms require huge capital and good management, they don't have it, but they are a status symbol to many.
"(They say) 'I am a farmer, I have a farm', but what are you producing? That's what we want to know, (not) to just have a farm where most of it is just pasture for cattle and you are not looking after the cattle, too," he said.
Speaking to thousands of Catholics and other people who attended Kutama Mission centenary celebrations in Zvimba, President Mugabe said he was disappointed with A2 farmers whom he said were using land as some kind of status symbol.
"We feel that the land issue has helped us to ameliorate the unemployment levels of our people and some of our young men are now reaping tobacco, cotton, although with regards to cotton there has been some reduction in the volume of production. But in tobacco the volumes are going up and rewarding our youngsters and it is more our young men who are in the A1 system and the A1 system is the one we rely upon most for food even yielding greater quantities of maize," said President Mugabe.
He said the A2 farmers were giving Government trouble and an audit was needed to establish how each farmer was faring.
"It is turning out now that quite a good many of those who got farms on the A2 system are not running them," said President Mugabe. "The farms require huge capital and good management, they don't have it, but they are a status symbol to many.
"(They say) 'I am a farmer, I have a farm', but what are you producing? That's what we want to know, (not) to just have a farm where most of it is just pasture for cattle and you are not looking after the cattle, too," he said.
Source - the herald
