Jump to full article: The Independent Online (IOL) (za), 2002-10-26
Author: Basildon Peta
Intro: Only about half of the eight million hectares of land seized from Zimbabwe's white farmers has been occupied by new black owners, prompting fears of a drastic decline in agricultural output next year. . .
'People should be on their farms before the end of the rainy season'Mashonaland East province, which had some of the country's most productive farmland and biggest tobacco farms, was the worst affected. David Karimanzira, the province's governor and resident minister, admitted that only half of the seized land in the province had been occupied, close to a month after the expiry of the first deadline for the new black farmers to move there.
"We have given the new settlers a deadline of up to the end of this month, failing which the land will be given to other applicants," Kariomanzira told the state-owned Herald newspaper.
The deadline is the second issued to the new settlers in as many months.
"We want production on the farms and people should be on their farms before the end of the rainy season," said Karimanzira.
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