Across the country, barely 300 of 4,500 white farmers survive, mostly because they have collaborated or paid protection money, or been overlooked because they are remote.

The result is catastrophic. Maize production has fallen from two million tons in 2000 to 500,000 in 2016, wheat from 250,000 to 60,000 tons. The number of cattle killed for beef has fallen from 605,000 to 244,000.

Mugabe's Crippling Legacy

Zimbabwe once fed much of southern Africa, but today a third of its roughly 13 million people urgently need food aid. Freeth drives me to the nearby town of Chegutu, which is dominated by 12 towering silos. Each can hold 5,000 tons of grain, but an employee says just one is full, though the harvest has recently ended.

Workers are unloading a goods train bearing maize from Mozambique. ‘This used to be the grain basket of southern Africa, and here we are importing maize to prevent us from starving,’ Freeth exclaims.

We visit Bain Farm Equipment, an agricultural supplier. ‘This would be full of new tractors, ploughs, harvesters and people. It would be a hive of activity at this time of year,’ Freeth says as we park on its forecourt. Now there are three bored employees, the last survivors of a 20-strong workforce.