Posted on 10/13/2005 11:41:56 PM PDT by ncoaster
Harare - China has turned down an offer by President Robert Mugabe’s government to take over farms seized from whites apparently because Beijing feared there was no guarantee that such an investment would be secure in the long term, authoritative sources said. Zimbabwe has since last April attempted to hammer a joint-venture deal with China that would enable resource-rich farmers from the Asian giant to enter into partnerships with the Harare government to farm land seized from whites and help resuscitate the southern African country’s collapsed agricultural sector. But sources said China has developed cold feet on the planned deal worried by Harare’s ever shifting land laws and policies in particular a controversial constitutional amendment last month that virtually nationalises all agricultural land. "There is unlikely to be a deal. The government was desperate to bring the Chinese over, but complications have arisen in light of the new laws nationalising farmland," said a senior official in Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Agriculture, who is privy to the negotiations between Harare and Beijing.
(Excerpt) Read more at zwnews.com ...
LOL.
Maybe he can get castro or chavez to send some help.
That's rich. A country - China - now importing farming technology and knowledge from Western countries being asked to take over failing farms in a country that took farms away from successful western farmers.
China learned one important lesson in farming that applies to Zimbabwe today. It is a lesson that started the transformation of China from a state run dud into the bastion of free enterprise that it is today.
It is a lesson China learned when a few collective farms stood up to Bejing and said, look at how much food we are producing by allowing our farmers to grow a portion of their harvest for their own private sale.
If Zimbabwe wants its farms to be successful, China can do it a big favor by telling it to get the government out of farming - and give it back to the farmers.
The farmers have left.
dont count the chicoms out just yet. they seriously desire a boothold in africa, but they want it with a coastline, not landlocked. zim will still be in death throes next year so this deal could reappear with more favorable terms for china. but honestly, would anyone really care if zim disappeared tomorrow? i know i wouldnt because if you really really desire to starve, i think you should be allowed to starve.
"As a result, food production has plummeted by an estimated 60 percent since 2000 when Mugabe began seizing farms from whites and giving them over to landless blacks."
"For example, an estimated four million people face starvation this year unless more than one million tonnes of food aid is urgently provided."
"Harare was also planning to seize more land from the few remaining white farmers and give it over to the firms."
So, the government, with millions starving, wants to kill the remaining 40% of food production.
I thought the black Africans were hot to use that farm land. I guess this is a case of cutting your nose off to spite your face.
That was before they realized that large scale commercial farming required more technology than scatching at the dirt with a stick, and more capital investment than throwing hundreds of so-call war veterans at the task.
The crop won't magically appear, ready for an easy harvest just because you wish it.
the idiot mugabe must have thought that the chinese would set up one of those collective stalinist farms which he remembered reading about in the glowing communist propaganda he ingested when he was a university student -- *IF* there are actually any of these left in china, they are big money losers for the chinese PLA so they probably opted out when it became clear that mugabe was expecting china to make up the losses.
i am actually surprised the negociations went as far as they did...
If I were the chinese government, this is how I would think. If this African government took the farmland from white owners by force, they'd do it to chinese owners too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.