Zimbabwe reaps from Mugabe

The 2000 land reform program will forever be remembered as the fatal blow that brought Zimbabwe to its knees as a result of its repercussions which were politically, economically and socially catastrophic. Although the initiative was to serve the black majority, the manner in which it was done was castigated by many as it was an 'expropriation without compensation trend' which left thousands of white commercial farmers devastated, scared, and homeless.

Before the year 2000, the food security of Zimbabwe and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was relatively in the hands of two thousand white commercial farmers and they made sure that the country was properly fed as well as the region.

However, in 1979 during the Lancaster House Agreement the British and the United States government agreed to partake in a land reform program agreement which would see even distribution of land and a compensation of £75 million and $500 million respectively but by the year 2000 Zimbabwe had relatively received only £30 million and less than 40% of the dispersed families had only been resettled.

With the land question hovering around and the Lancaster House Agreement still to be fulfilled 20 years later, the former president Robert Mugabe was forced to take action for the benefit of the black majority as land was basically the cause of the first and second Chimurenga.

In 2000 Mugabe embarked on the Land Reform Act which relatively saw many black people acquiring land from the white commercial farmers, a move which was castigated by many. As a result of the Act the majority of black people were now in possession of fertile land and moved from the reserves where the land was arid. From 2000 the agricultural produce of Zimbabwe declined drastically up to the year 2017. Zimbabwe is now in course of achieving its bread basket status. In 2017 Zimbabwe experienced a bumper harvest and it's now producing its own produce which is relatively owned and run by the black people.

Although it took more than a decade for transformation to start transpiring it seems as if Mugabe's policy is beginning to pay off. Zimbabwe is now rated as the largest producer of tobacco in Africa with its tobacco regarded as the best in the world due to the fact that it is more than 90 percent pure.

Notably known as the golden leaf, tobacco contributes immensely to the Gross Domestic Product (G.D.P) of the country and Zimbabwe is expected to rake in more than a billion dollars this year from the golden leaf. Whilst addressing farmers at the tobacco auction floor last Wednesday in Harare the Tobacco Marketing Board (T.M.B) chairperson, Monica Chinamasa said that there was a 43 percent increase in tobacco production with 118 549 new farmers this season.

Reiterating on that notion vice president of Zimbabwe Constantino Chiwenga, said that tobacco was now responsible for at least three million people. He also said that the country was exporting more than 90 percent of unprocessed tobacco which was curtailing the revenue rather than exporting processed tobacco. The vice president instigated that the tobacco was supposed to be exported in its processed form which would increase revenue as well as create jobs.

Chiwenga also said that tobacco will now be part of the command agriculture program an initiative which was formulated by Mugabe which ensures that prospective farmers are given the desired agricultural implements to help them with the agricultural production and this initiative has since bore fruits for both the farmers and the country at large.