FARMING sector planners have, once again, been caught napping. And this time, the consequences of their blunders - worse than those of a schoolboy - are too ghastly to contemplate.

The country, whose economy has lapsed into a coma of sorts after being subjected to heavy and rapid dosages of politics, administered without due regard to the state of the economy, had hoped that policy makers and administrators had learnt from past mistakes.

Sadly, they have not.

Elsewhere in this issue, we report that farmers have all but failed to plant the 70,000 hectares of winter wheat that had been planned for this season.

As of May 23, only 8,963 hectares had been put under wheat, according to statistics captured by the Ministry of Agriculture.

This embarrassing figure represents only 13 percent of the planned hectarage, meaning the farmers, who increased in number following the chaotic land reforms, were 87 percent off-target. As they say, too many cooks spoil the broth.

Barring any miracles, which rarely happen in agriculture where failing to plan is planning to fail, the possibility that farmers might have covered the remaining 61,037 hectares by May 31, the winter wheat planting deadline, is very remote.

If past experience is anything to go by, the country, which lost its breadbasket status after the emotive land reforms decimated the mainstay of the economy, would be lucky to produce an average yield from the 9,000 hectares put under winter wheat.

For instance, the farmers who are still learning the ropes after being thrown into the deep end without the requisite resources would have to grapple with the intermittent power cuts that are getting more intense and the disruptions on the farms, which are yet to stop.

The farmers must also summon all their creativity to get round the crippling shortages of inputs that are taking the glamour out of agriculture, which to all intents and purposes, is the biggest source of inflation. And then there are other exogenous factors such as the threat of quelea birds that have reduced yields in past seasons.

It is now a foregone conclusion that another disastrous winter wheat season is upon us. A dent in output around the next harvest in November, while vindicating the concerns raised by this paper time without number, is not good for the country, which requires 400,000 tonnes of wheat yearly.

The long and short of it is that the market will continue to experience flour and bread shortages of unimaginable proportions. The milling and baking industries, which are already in the red, might be forced to close shop or truncate operations to the barest minimum production levels as the country continues to count the cost of poor planning.

The country has suffered chronic foreign currency shortages due to the massive drop in exports and the dearth in foreign aid, triggered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s withdrawal of balance of payments support in the late 1990s.

This means that Zimbabwe has no financial wherewithal to bankroll wheat imports.

IMF's exit over the form, style and content of the country's austerity economic reforms spawned the current economic crisis, which took a turn for the worst when the government started expropriating land from the minority whites for allocation to inexperienced and poorly funded black farmers.

Ever since that time, the country, whose economy is powered by the agricultural sector, is yet to get its act together.

Statistics also indicate that on a comparative basis, the 8 963 hectares put under winter wheat as of May 23 are 10 000 hectares less that the 18 989 hectares farmers had planted during the same period last year.

The figures reflect badly on the Ministries of Agriculture and Policy Implementation. No amount of excuses can lessen the culpability on the part of Ministers Rugare Gumbo and Charles Ndlovu, who have clearly let the nation down.

Or could it be that Gumbo is reading notes from former agriculture minister Joseph Made, whose blundering and weird crop forecasting methods are a matter of public record.

It is however, not too difficult to figure out the reasons for the costly ineptitude, which in other countries could have claimed the scalps of superintendents in the two ministries.

With the country still to untangle the March 29 presidential election stalemate between President Robert Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, focus has shifted from bread and butter issues as the government deploys all the resources it can muster towards securing a ZANU-PF victory on June 27.

Not even the opposition has bothered to raise the red flag.

But because government has been muddled in politics, the whole civil service has gone into a trance in defending ZANU-PF's political turf.

Sadly, nobody seems to care. President Mugabe has never fired any of his officials on the basis of poor performance hence his subordinates now believe that only loyalty can guarantee their jobs, which explains why his lieutenants fall over each other to please him.

While the central bank has made available tractors, ploughs and an assortment of other farming equipment to step up agricultural production, there is very little activity on the farms to justify the investment.

Or could it be that the beneficiaries of the agriculture mechanisation programme are not putting the equipment to good use.

We strongly urge the government to undertake a thorough audit of all the farm equipment provided by the Reserve Bank as well as an audit of the quadrillions of dollars disbursed through the Agricultural Sector Productivity Enhancement Fund.

We fear that scarce resources might have been diverted to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities at a huge cost to the economy.

The audit, whose findings must not gather dust in bottom drawers, should avoid taking the form of a spider web that only catches small insects and lets the big ones through. It should target the big fish first before cascading downwards.

A strong message needs to be sent across the farming community by punishing those who abuse projects or programmes funded through the taxpayer's money.

Correctly pricing inputs, loans and farming equipment would also deter farmers from straying from their core business. Instead of overburdening the taxpayer, government should seriously consider removing subsidies, which are creating arbitrage opportunities for unscrupulous farmers.

Whoever emerges winner of the runoff should also ensure that those who sleep behind the wheel do the honourable thing by resigning.