Zim farmers look to SADC

AT LEAST 750 commercial farmers have left Zimbabwe to farm in other Southern Africa Development (SADC) countries because of the government's seizure of white-owned land, a farmers' spokeswoman said this week.

Jenni Williams, spokeswoman for Zimbabwe Justice for Agriculture, said most of the farmers had left in the past few months because of the occupation of their land by ruling ZANU PF supporters or the targeting of their farms for seizure by the government.

She said it was not possible however to determine the number of farmers who had left Zimbabwe in the past few weeks because of a government order requiring white land owners to vacate their properties and make way for black peasants by August 10.

The government, in the process of redistributing white-owned land to landless blacks, ordered more than 2,900 of Zimbabwe's 4,500 commercial farmers to quit their farms.

"At least 750 people have left in the last few months," Williams told the Financial Gazette. "But these are not up to date figures.

"They (the farmers) are going mostly to the SADC region. They are staying close by so that they can come back if things improve."

Farming industry sources said many commercial farmers had headed for Mozambique, South Africa and Namibia.

According to the Commercial Farmers' Union newsletter Countdown, at least 12 Zimbabwean farming families have settled near Chimoio in Mozambique in the last 18 months. A former Zimbabwean has helped develop the area's farming association.

Late last week, 17 representatives of Zimbabwean commercial farmers held discussions with government officials in Botswana about relocating there.

Botswana's deputy permanent secretary for agriculture, Masego Mphathi, told South Africa's Business Day: "They wanted large chunks of land in which they could continue with their farming activities on this side of the border.

"But the problem with us is that our land is already occupied, even if the owners might not be operating on it. There are a lot of people who have land in this country, but are not using it.

"The problem is that farming is a land-intensive thing and they are talking of serious farming. You get to a situation where one person was farming an area the size of 4 000 hectares and you cannot give him a smaller piece of land. It's a pity that we do not have land. However, we have asked them to get into smart partnerships with local farmers."

Analysts this week said the departure of established commercial farmers for neighbouring countries would deprive Zimbabwe of technical and commercial expertise in agriculture that would take years to rebuild.

"It's very ironic that these countries are tacitly encouraging what the government is doing while at the same time they are busy offering land to our farmers to develop their own agriculture," a commercial bank agro-economist said.

Jennie should not be talking about the possibility of farmers returning.

She should be talking up the probability of a permanent loss of agrarian expertise.

Fact is, these farmers are not coming back.

A year ago the membership of the Commercial Farmers' Union was approximately 4,500, of which about 15% were black.

A month ago, the membership was said to be about 3,200.

Meanwhile, farmers are making leasehold and partnership arrangements in Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and Namibia.

The longterm trend is looking grim indeed. The black-ruled governments in Africa are essentially condemning their children to permanent famine as more and more farmers decide to leave, and as more and more white farmers are FORCED to leave.

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