Rain fails to bolster Zimbabwe's crops

Source from:  Monday, Feb. 6, 2006 tobaccoreporter.com 02/07/2006

Zimbabwe's crops have failed again in spite of plentiful rainfall this year, reports Cape Argus. President Robert Mugabe has blamed the weather for the six-year slump in Zimbabwe's agricultural production. The rain has produced ideal conditions for record yields, but Zimbabwe will grow less than half what it needs to feed the population. Its export crops continue to dwindle. The Commercial Farmers Union predicts that Zimbabwe will produce less flue-cured tobacco than Zambia this year, and that production will be at an all-time low of 25 percent of yields prior to the year 2000. Enditem