09:56 03Jan2007 Zimbabwe welcomes rains but floods threaten harvest
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe enjoyed rains this week after a two-week dry spell but farmers said on Wednesday that hopes of a bumper harvest could fade after floods washed away crops in southern areas.
Food shortages are part of a wider economic crisis in the southern African nation which critics largely blame on President Robert Mugabe's policies, including the seizure of white-owned commercial farmers to resettle blacks.
The U.N. World Food Programme has urged the government to ensure food security to help ease a deep recession while the International Monetary Fund says Harare should prioritise food imports in its national budget.
"First it was the dry spell in the southern and western parts of the country and when the rains started around the new year this was accompanied by flooding," Abdul Paul Nyathi, vice president of the Zimbabwe Farmers' Union, told Reuters.
"Farmers in these areas are very worried, they don't know what to do next."
Farmers in southern and western Zimbabwe had been forced to re-plant their crops following the two-week dry spell in most parts of the country.
Agriculture is the backbone of the country's economy and was once the top foreign-currency earner. It accounts for 18.5 percent of gross domestic product and anchors the cattle, timber, grain and horticulture sectors.
But critics say blacks who benefited from the land reform programme have been largely ill-equipped and lack enough capital to fully utilise the land, leaving Zimbabwe -- once southern Africa's bread-basket -- struggling to feed itself.
The government says it has contracted suppliers to import 565,000 tonnes of maize next year from South Africa and Zambia to boost stocks.
Industry officials said while the availability of seed for the staple maize crop had improved, farmers were worried by shortages of fertiliser, fuel, chemicals and equipment.
But Lands and Agriculture Minister Joseph Made has remained optimistic, telling state television that farmers still had up to January 15 to plant the staple maize crop. Critics disagreed, saying the country would face food shortages.
"Obviously because of poor weather and government's own failure to properly plan, we will see the country failing to achieve the bumper harvest," said Renson Gasela, the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change secretary for agriculture.
"What the government should be doing right now is to be planning to import more maize to avert shortages," he added.
Zimbabwe is battling a deep recession marked by world record inflation of 1,070.2 percent, unemployment of 80 percent and shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food.
Mugabe argues that land seizures were necessary to redress colonial imbalances, which left 70 percent of Zimbabwe's best land in the hands of a small number of white commercial farmers.
((Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; editing by Michael Roddy))
