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Shocking Zimbabwean
Agricultural Statistics

From Jan Lamprecht
Southern Africa in Crisis
AfricanCrisis.Org
10-13-3

Jeff -
 
I got the following information from a friend of mine who is currently doing consulting work for the Commercial Farmer's Union in Zimbabwe. These are some of the statistics from the CFU documents as at October 2003. These statistics show clearly the effect of Mugabe's madness.
 
General Agricultural output (For Maize, sorghum, wheat, etc)
2000: 810,000 tonnes
2003: 80,000 tonnes
 
Soyabeans
2000: 145,000 tonnes
2001: 162,000 tonnes
2003: 30,000 tonnes
 
Wheat
2000: 225,000 tonnes
2001: 282,000 tonnes
2003 0 tonnes (yes, Zero output)
 
Barley
Average annual production used to be: 32,000 tonnes
Now: Zero output.
 
Commercial Cotton
2000: 25,000 hectares cultivated producing:
Commercial output was: 60,000 tonnes
National Output was: 335,000 tonnes
2002: 5,000 hectares cultivated producing:
Commercial output was: 10,000 tonnes
National Output was: 195,000 tonnes
(Note in the above, the hectarage probably only applies to the Commercial
farmers)
 
Beef Cattle
2000: Females bulled: 436,000 Total head of cattle: 1,169,000
2002: Females bulled: 237,900 Total head of cattle: 708,000
 
(Note, I stand to be corrected, but in colonial times, the national herd was in excess of 5 million - I could be wrong - but that's as best as my memory serves me. Its been downhill for the past 30 years).
 
Just some more basic info: There are still white farmers being run off the land in spite of Mugabe's claims that his land redistribution had ended last year. According to my friend, the CFU was stating that in one area
where there had been 2,000 white farmers there were now only 200. And in
another area where there had been 200, they were down to 21 only.
 
These are the results of so-called "Land Reform".
 
What is not mentioned in this, is a new phenomenon "the AIDS-induced
drought" which is hitting all across Southern Africa. AIDS is killing off
the very peasants people like Mugabe are betting on to save the day... and
this is why many Southern African countries now have food shortages -
these are being brought on through AIDS.
 
And finally... meteorologists are saying... South Africa might have one of
its worst droughts ever... this year.
 

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