- 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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