HARARE – The European Commission (EC) is ready to fund an audit of President Robert Mugabe’s chaotic and often violent land reform programme that is a key step to resolving Zimbabwe’s thorny land dispute, a top EC official said Thursday.

Head of the EC delegation to Zimbabwe Xavier Marchal said: “We are ready to assist the government to implement an inclusive, transparent, and comprehensive land audit . . . which should be aimed at resolving the land issue. This is the bigger picture, which cannot be ignored if Zimbabwe’s agriculture is to become highly successful again.”

Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned farmland for redistribution to landless blacks is among key issues that have soured relations with Brussels and seen European Union member-countries cut direct support to Harare while imposing visa and financial bans on the Zimbabwean leader and his top allies.

A coalition government formed by Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai seven months ago has promised to undertake a comprehensive land audit that should set the stage for an orderly and equitable agrarian reform programme. But the administration has shelved the audit because of lack of resources.

Lands minister Herbert Murerwa last month said the government needed US$30 million to carry out the land audit, but money which Harare does not have.

While promising to help, Marchal also called on the Zimbabwean government to take responsibility for the mess in the agricultural sector triggered by Mugabe’s land reforms.

He said: “Government has to take its responsibilities. The decline in the agricultural production is indeed related to failing government polices associated to issues relating to the way the land and agrarian reform programme has been conducted. These need to be addressed by government.”

Mugabe, who seized white farm without paying saying the land was stolen from blacks in the first place, denies his land reforms ruined agriculture and instead blames poor weather and Western sanctions that he says crippled the economy’s capacity to produce fertilizer and other agricultural inputs.

But critics blame Mugabe’s land reforms for plunging Zimbabwe into food shortages after he failed to support black villagers resettled on former white farms to maintain production. In addition, critics say Mugabe’s cronies – and not ordinary peasants – benefited the most from farm seizures with some of them ending up with as many as six farms each against the government’s stated one-man-one-farm policy.

Meanwhile Marchal, who was addressing an EU food facility stakeholders meeting in Harare, said the EC will provide 25 percent of Zimbabwe’s fertiliser needs this agricultural season as part of efforts to lift output and ensure food security.

He said through the Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Zimbabwe would receive Euro 15 million for fertiliser requirements.

“This year, EC on behalf of EU, will provide around 25 percent of all fertilisers needs for smallholder farmers. Most of this is done through FAO,” Marchal said.

He explained that the farm support programme was part of a wider programme to moving Zimbabwe from dependency on “food aid to food security” while building self-reliance at small holder farmer level.

Additional reporting: – ZimOnline