Zimbabwe's embattled white farmers said today the country's land crisis had escalated despite a deal by the government to end violent farm invasions, and output of key crops could fall by 40 percent next year.
A survey by the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) on the impact of farm invasions by supporters of President Robert Mugabe showed some 1,948 farms out of 6,000 properties owned by whites had been occupied since February 2000, with 72 percent of these invaded from March this year after a law cutting out further invasions.
The CFU said production of tobacco, which accounts for a third of Zimbabwe's export earnings, could fall by at least a third in the 2001/2 (Nov-April) cropping season as an increasing number of new settlers were halting commercial production.
"Unless the problems of operation stoppages is addressed, and our survey shows that this is affecting 31 percent of the farms, some believe the tobacco could fall as low as 100 million kg," CFU director Mr David Hasluck told a news conference.
And that we will also see significant falls in other crops such as maize, coffee and paprika, Mr Hasluck added.
Zimbabwe produced about 190 million kg of flue-cured tobacco this year, and is the world's third largest exporter after the US and Brazil.
The survey was immediately dismissed as a pack of lies by Zimbabwe's Agriculture minister Joseph Made.
"It's a pack of lies. If things are so bad, why don't they pack and go and we will take over the production," Mr Made said on state television.