Britain Gives Zimbabwe $72m Loan To Help Rural Farmers

Britain has given Zimbabwe 72 million dollars loan to help increase food production by rural farmers over the next four years.

Once the bread-basket of the southern African region, Zimbabwe has since year 2000 struggled to feed its people due to droughts.

However, President Robert Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks badly affected commercial agriculture.

Catriona Laing, Britain’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, said with 70 per cent of Zimbabweans living in rural areas and mostly surviving on farming, supporting agriculture would speed up economic recovery.

The money would be paid out through the Food and Agriculture Organisation and other relief agencies. (Reuters/NAN)