Harare - The Zimbabwe government has seized 4,558 white-owned farms totalling 8.8 million hectares (21.7 million acres) since it started its controversial land reform scheme last year, a minister said yesterday.
Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister, Mr Joseph Made, said more than 60 per cent of the 15 million hectares of land owned by whites had been under-utilised. While about 4,500 white farmers owned 70 per cent of prime farmland, he added, millions of blacks were congested on marginal soils in communal areas.