It’s a lie. White farmers not responsible for Zimbabwe’s recovering agriculture

Zimbabwe’s fact checking organization, Zimfact, had dismissed a claim by United States news agency Bloomberg that white farmers are responsible for Zimbabwe’s agricultural recovery following the land reform programme.

Here are the facts:

CLAIM: White farmers are mostly responsible for Zimbabwe’s rebounding farm output.

Source: Bloomberg News

VERDICT: Incorrect. Available data shows that communal farmers, who have traditionally produced most of Zimbabwe’s staple maize, remain the leading producer of the grain and now also account for most of the tobacco output. Communal farmers are also significant producers of soyabean, accounting for nearly half the output.

Bloomberg News, in an article headlined “Zimbabwe’s farming booms masks 20 years of failure”, claimed that:

“Two decades after Robert Mugabe drove white farmers off their land, Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector is booming. The people tending the crops are, again, mostly white farmers.”

The article also further claims: “Zimbabwean farming is dominated by large companies such as British American Tobacco and Innscor Africa that hire growers to produce on their behalf on a commercial scale.”

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