Zimbabwe faces pitiful agricultural yield

PRESIDENT ROBERT Mugabe can no longer blame the weather for the country’s failing crops. Despite ample daily rainfall, Zimbabwe’s agricultural production is forecast to provide less than half of the country’s food and export needs, according to freshplaza.com. “There were serious shortages of fertiliser, fuel and seeds,” Hendrik Olivier, the director of the Commercial Farmers’ Union, said. “In some areas, maize planting, which should have ended a month ago, is still continuing.” The Cape Argus recently reported that Zimbabwe was expected to produce less flue-cured tobacco than Zambia this year, and that production would be at an all-time low of 25% of regular yields prior to the land-grab from white farmers which began in 2000.