Remove politics from farming, only 2 000 farmers can feed the nation says Central Bank chief

The governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, John Mangudya, says Zimbabwe needs to remove politics from farming to re-energise the sector and feed the nation.

Addressing members of the  Zimbabwe Farmers Union in Mutare Mangudya said with proper planning and seriousness, the country only needs 2 000 farmers to feed the nation.

“We only need 2 000 serious farmers who are adequately funded to produce food for the country at just 100 hectare each,” he was quoted by NewZimbabwe.Com as saying.

“We don’t need sangomas but seriousness only. We should come up with a (land) policy which clearly says use it or lose it…”

Mangudya said last season about $500 million was ploughed into agriculture but there was nothing to do show it. The country is currently short of about 700 000 tonnes of maize to feed the nation. The food shortage has been attributed to drought.

Mangudya, however, said the problem was lack of planning.

“It’s not about money but planning….. We have all the money but where are we getting it wrong?  It’s not about title deeds or 99 year leases but we should just do away with the culture of laziness on the farms.

“We have a lot of farms which are lying idle. The problem with Zimbabweans is that we are too educated and we only see problems but not production.”

“The way business is being run in Zimbabwe is bad. We don’t have entrepreneurs but workers; entrepreneurs plan before the rain season but in the country we have farmers who wait for government freebies.”

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