Zimbabwe's agriculture engine has been stuck in neutral for about two years, with attended untold suffering manifesting itself in current food shortages currently experienced in villages and towns.
The country's agriculture has been dealt two severe blows on two fronts. The first one is nature-inflicted drought currently ravaging Zimbabwe and the other is politics - in the form of disruptive farm invasions since February 2000 by the so-called war veterans of Robert Mugabe.
The word "drought" has become a household name in the Zimbabwean farming community. From the years 1982, 1987, 1992, 1995, and now 2002, the "absence of rain" has been more common than "its presence."
The catch-phrase now is "survivability." As a result, people have shifted gears, and attention is lavished on getting basic food items. This is a new culture for Zimbabweans who are generally industrious in good farming years.
From November 2001, which is usually the start of the country's rainy season, farmers' efforts were turned to begging when fields in both rural and some commercial areas were planted with the usual crop of maize (corn), rapoko, groundnuts, beans and sunflower, only to have sprouts scorched to death by the intense heat of the sun.
Zimbabwe, in recent years, has become more susceptible to weather-related disasters. In 2000-'01, unprecedented floods inundated the eastern and southeastern parts of Zimbabwe. Men and women across the spectrum of age and socioeconomic status have been appalled by the government's sanctioning of farm invasions on productive commercial farms.
Not much was produced in the farms for the past two years. Farm invasions by the so-called war veterans have an excruciating ricochet effect on food production in Zimbabwe.
Current food shortages and war veterans are joined at the hip. It's difficult to talk about the current food shortages without talking about the impact of "Mugaberization" on food production.
As one moves from one urban center to the other, or one Grain Marketing Board depot to the next, one can often see lines of angry women with babies strapped on their backs jostling for the first spot in line to get food.
"The hunger and economic hardships provide the raw material out of which protest or even an uprising could result," said Brian Ratfopoulos, a University of Zimbabwe professor. The food shortages have shifted the epicenter of Zimbabwean politics, usurping attention from the currently political impasse as a result of the flawed presidential election.
As it is now, drought and politics are vying to inflict the most pain and wrest support and sympathy from the international community.
Despite being ridiculed in the state media by the geriatric Zimbabwean president, Britain and the United States government remain the No. 1 contributors to the Zimbabwean food aid fund run by the United Nations. The United States government has given food aid worth $20 million.
"The amount will meet the needs of approximately 170,000 vulnerable people in rural Zimbabwe during the next 12 months," according to a statement from the embassy.
While the Zimbabwean government continues to destabilize farming and pretend all is well, state-run television finally showed pictures of scorched maize in all areas of the country, to the utter surprise of most people.
Now with meager foreign currency to buy raw materials and machinery, the government has shown no resolve and commitment to produce enough food to feed its people.
Write to Weston at wmudambanuki@bsu.edu
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