"The government does not seem to be interested in fire prevention any more, and for as long as tough action is not taken against offenders, they will continue to cause veld fires, which are worse this year than in previous years. Even if we received good rains this year, the amount of food that we should have produced has been reduced before the farming season starts," Chimbwanda told IRIN.
 The
government does not seem to be interested in fire prevention any more,
and for as long as tough action is not taken against offenders, they
will continue to cause veld fires, which are worse this year than in
previous years |
"Our members from across the country have reported losing inputs, food
reserves, and draught power [animals used for ploughing] in the fires
that have also killed people, while livestock will have nowhere to graze
because pastures have been destroyed."
He said it was not possible to quantify the losses, but "Many households will be forced to buy food using scarce resources because of these veld fires.
Innocent Makwiramiti, a former chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, now an economist based in the capital, Harare, was not optimistic about any meaningful response to the veld fires.
"The government is currently broke and it would be difficult to deploy these committees effectively. In any case, the damage is already done, and attention should be put on how best to help those farmers whose preparations have been adversely affected by the veld fires."
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