Some human problems encountered by African farming development

At the outset, I would like to give you a very brief outline of the reasons why and how African Farming Development started. It was during the banning of firstly the National Democratic Party and then the banning of the Zimbabwe African Peoples’ Union in 1962 that many of us farmers, as police reservists, were called out to patrol the Tribal Trust Areas. For many of us this was the first time that we had been into these areas and we were all appalled by what we saw and found, particularly during the banning of Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) where we had to search people’s houses; we found insufficient food to see the families through to the next season. We were appalled by the lack of proper conservation methods employed in these areas and finally over the odd pint of beer in the club in the evenings, we as farmers decided that something must be done to show these people that by proper farming methods, they would be able to conserve their land properly and have adequate food resources to at least feed their families. We found that a vacuum had been left in these areas and that unless it was replaced or filled with something to inspire the plot-holders to greater efforts the situation in these areas would continue to slide into an agricultural slum.

An article on the problems encountered by the African Farming Development (of Rhodesia.)