Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe defended his agricultural policies on Tuesday against widespread accusations that he was pushing a country once known as the breadbasket of Africa into starvation.
"My country's primary agriculture policy objective remains that of ensuring national and household food security through our own production," he said in a speech to a UN food summit in Rome, where he was snubbed by many participants.
Most Western representatives at the summit said they would have no contact with Mugabe. Some expressed outrage that he was allowed to attend a summit on a global crisis of soaring food prices and shortages, given that many blame him for plummeting farm production in his own country.
