Tim Henwood: Minister had "a more pressing engagement"

Addressing the two day event is traditionally one of the most important events of the minister's calendar.

Mr Henwood suggested ironically that perhaps the minister had a more pressing engagement.

But relations between the mainly white farmers' union and the government have deteriorated sharply since President Mugabe and his ministers gave official backing to the illegal occupation of commercial farms in the run-up to parliamentary elections in June.

Survival plan

The failure to evict squatters, combined with a listing of thousands of white owned farms for redistribution to government supporters, threatens to completely undermine the entire economy.

Commercial agriculture is the backbone of the Zimbabwean economy, earning more foreign currency and employing more workers than any other sector.

Faced with a breakdown in the rule of law, and a refusal to enforce court orders, the farmers are desperately trying to formulate a survival plan.

But their biggest problem, as they were reminded when the land and agriculture minister failed to show up for their annual congress is that the government is not listening.