A stitch in time . . .

Perspective Stephen Mpofu
ZIMBABWE, like other developing nations, is reeling under the effects of global warming and the people must brace for worse, nay, they must device and implement effective measures to mitigate climate change and prevent the worst coming to the worst [Environmentalists say that carbon gases emitted into the atmosphere, with China and the United States accounting for a third of the global emissions, take long to break down and this portends hard times ahead for humankind and wildlife].

Otherwise, kudos to Zambia for supplying this country with maize to offset deficits in food production in drier parts of this country. The maize imports from Zambia could not be a better demonstration of good neighbourliness, especially in so far as the food comes with no political strings embedded in the consignments as is often the case with food aid from industrialised countries that is given with strings attached to it. Better still Zambia’s readiness to sell food to Zimbabwe validates the saying that “one good turn deserves another”, since in the late 60s and 70s when Zambia needed food, as the people there thumbed their nose on the then President Kenneth Kaunda’s impassioned plea for them to “go back to the land”, instead of crowding around urban areas — as the country enjoyed the golden era of copper which might eventually come to an end when the metal ran out, Kaunda’s government warned — Zimbabwe supplied that country’s dire food needs.

Now, however, Zambians appear to have picked up the thread, even long after President Kaunda and his United National Independence Party ceased to rule. For Zimbabwe, it is really ironic that once renowned as the breadbasket of Southern Africa, the country now goes out brandishing a begging basket when the land for which a protracted 15-year armed struggle was waged with losses of the precious lives of young sons and daughters of the motherland, has been restored to its rightful owners.

But while guerillas won the bush war, they have no control whatsoever over global warming and climate change — phenomena that spawn floods and recurrent droughts, the latter being responsible today for food shortages in many dry parts of Zimbabwe and to some of which maize imported from Zambia is being supplied. Yet the story of the devastating effects of global warming has long been as familiar to Zimbabweans as the sun rises and sets. However, Zimbabweans appear blissfully to have believed that they were somehow insulated against the ugly hand of global warming and its concomitant climate change when they ought to have known, especially most literate as they are, that communicologically the world is now a global village and that when people at the far end of the village catch a cold those at the other end will in time start to sneeze. That this country has caught the cold, that other countries have long or are also experiencing, can only suggest that Zimbabweans comfortably sat on their laurels when they ought to have been proactive in taking such measures as would mitigate climate change and any environmental damage caused.

Stated otherwise, when pro-action ought to have acted as a stitch in time to save nine, responsible authorities, especially in the agricultural sector, appear more and more to have been reactive. For instance, how does one explain a situation where irrigation equipment around the country broke down and remained in that state for a long time until now when the masses hear of helter-skelter measures being taken to repair the equipment?

Had repair work been undertaken in time — and such irrigation facilities provided in districts known to experience perennial dry spells — many people now stalked by hunger, as a hunter stalks game, would have been home and dry in the face of climate change as food crops would have been grown under irrigation.

Efforts should and must of necessity be made by those overseeing the success of the agricultural sector to ensure that people in drier parts of the country do not migrate from growing drought-resistant crops, such as sorghum, millet and pearl millet in a mad rush for maize, tobacco and cotton, attracted by the lucrative prices offered for these crops.

Some of the people now experiencing food shortages in usually dry parts of the country are now paying a harsh penalty for growing these none food crops, lured by the big money the crops fetch on the market. But even in areas where these cash crops have long reigned supreme, their glory is not for all seasons. As an example, cotton production in such a major area as Gokwe is right now in shambles after the price of the white gold nosedived on the international market and Zimbabwean producers find themselves in a dilemma as they must drastically reduce production of cotton with serious social consequences without the money they need for the upkeep of their families. And yet again had superintendants of the agricultural sector kept their ear on the ground to catch happenings on the international market for cotton, they would have been forewarned of the international fall in prices and would have then advised local growers of cotton to diversify to other crops in order to cushion themselves against the effects of the price cuts.

In fact, those charged with monitoring various productive sectors in the country should act like a soccer coach, for instance, who moves up and down the sidelines of a pitch to watch how his or her team is performing so that necessary strategies to improve play against the opposition can be implemented.

The same can be said regarding land reform. The acquisition of land from those who possessed obscene stretches of it — in revolutionary terms — and its reallocation to those who needed it the most inputes, and continues to do so today, that the land must be put to productive use to benefit the country by improving its food security. As such, those who squat on land without using all accumulative efforts to make that asset productive should have it taken away from them and given to those who are prepared to use it in the furtherance of the revolution that secured that land from a foreign ruling culture.

It is for that reason that the current subdivisions of big farms owned by some political gurus and others is to be applauded as it empowers other people to make better use of the land.

Usually leaders in society deliberately eschew pro-action because they politically want to appease the public for its trump card, the vote, at elections. That is why recently some so-called political leaders in our society dared to open their mouths urging street vendors in Harare to oppose their removal by the government to new sites now being designated for them.

One would be surprised at the calibre of these leaders if they truly could not see the deplorable state to which the vendors are reducing Harare’s sunshine city status in terms of cleanliness and health, for instance. But of course, these leaders adopted a confrontational stance against the government for their own political gain which, unfortunately, will sorely suffer at the appropriate time.

Yet on the other hand, the same failure to act promptly by clearing the streets of our city before more inundations by vendors — and under the guise of a lack of employment — can be sited as reaction rather than pro-action which would have been a stitch in time to save worse things happening. The above discourse by this pen suggests that our leaders in society, at whatever levels politically or traditionally, should always be quick on the march in detecting small fires lit in every sector of our society before they develop into conflagrations that are costly to extinguish.