The spending was allocated in the 2024 budget as part of a series of measures to restore the country's once-thriving farming sector and help launch a long promised economic revival.

Agriculture collapsed when Mugabe oversaw the seizure of highly productive farms in 2000. Most were owned by Zimbabwean white commercial farmers after colonialists forcibly took them from Blacks early in the 20th century.

But foreign white farmers and some Black Zimbabweans also lost property in the seizures a quarter of a century ago, many of them spontaneous, unorganised and largely benefiting those with links to the ruling Zanu-PF party.

The victims being compensated include foreign farmers from Belgium, Germany and other countries, and 400 Black Zimbabweans, Mthuli Ncube said.

A separate and much larger $3.5 billion scheme for 4 000 white Zimbabwean farmers was announced in 2020, but the money has not been forthcoming owing to Zimbabwe's financial woes.

--Reuters--