Hungry Zimbabwe faces severe wheat shortage

May 16, 2007, 16:11 GMT

Harare - Zimbabwe has only planted a fraction of its wheat requirements this year, state radio announced Wednesday as the country's few remaining white farmers said ongoing disruptions on their farms had slashed projected yields.

The radio said a parliamentary committee on land and land reform had expressed concern that only 8,000 hectares out of a targeted 76,000 hectares of wheat had been planted.

This had led to a likelihood of severe wheat shortages, the radio said. The slow pace of planting has been attributed Zimbabwe's chronic shortages of fuel, fertilizer and electricity for irrigation.

The southern African country, once hailed as the region's breadbasket - is already facing a massive deficit of more than a million tonnes of the staple maize crop.

It needs at least 355,000 tonnes of wheat a year for bread, another staple for the population of 11.6 million. But the crop needs to be planted before the end of May to ensure optimum yields.

Meanwhile, the white-run Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has warned that ongoing disruptions on the few farms still occupied by white farmers had dampened their wheat production forecasts.

In a submission made to parliament, a copy of which was seen Wednesday by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa the union said up to 30 of its members had either been prevented from planting wheat, or had been forced to abandon crops in the field.

The disruptions would see the expected harvest of 50,000 tonnes reduced by nearly a third, the CFU said.

'We are seeing an increase in farm disturbances around the country with supposed new farm beneficiaries threatening farmers with immediate eviction and seizure of their farm equipment,' CFU spokesperson Emily Crookes told dpa.

'It continues to be of considerable concern to us that productive farms are being targeted for takeover when so much arable land is lying idle throughout the country,' she said.

The CFU said wheat produced in Zimbabwe during the southern African winter had plummeted from 329,000 tonnes in 2001 to just 150,000 tonnes last year.

Production of most agricultural commodities, including tobacco, milk and beef has been severely reduced since President Robert Mugabe's government began seizing land from white commercial farmers in 2000 for redistribution to new black farmers.