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The Zimbabwe Agricultural Show runs all week at Exhibition Park in Harare and for the 113th show, held under a variety of names in the past, the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society has continued to upgrade the venue and make it safer and more convenient.
Efforts have also been made to increase the range of functions and entertainment so the show can be a suitable family outing as well as a business opportunity for many.
This has restored the show as a major social event in Harare, a status it was in danger of losing a few years ago as the old guard retreated and the society had to adapt to the new circumstances.
This it has largely managed to do, at least as a place where very large numbers from in and around Harare can meet and have fun, with 250 000 people expected, which is decent slice of the metropolitan area’s population.
So that has been sorted, and the security and efficiency of the organisation should attract back many who might have decided to give it a miss a few years ago.
But although there is now more participation from the farming community and the agriculture sector, there are opportunities to make the show more reflective of what it is titled and what it should be more definitely, the premier and top-tier agricultural show in Zimbabwe, in many way going back to its roots of early last century.
The Harare Show was started by farmers. The first show was held a little to the south of present site, nearer the railway line, but still along the western edge of the then built up area, now known as the central business district and the Avenues, where most town people lived and close enough so they could walk over if they wished.
Farmers wanted a show for several reasons. For a start the best wanted to show off their cattle and other livestock and the varieties of maize and other grains they were growing. In those days almost every farmer had a different grain variety, with the uniformity that came later as a result of research and the rise of seed houses non-existent.
Besides the desire to show off and compete and win trophies, there was the commercial gain. Those with the best cattle and the best crops could over time sell breeding stock and sell seed.
The home industries section, which arose almost in tandem with the livestock and crop competitions. Had a double function of showing off who could make the best jams and the like, but more important help establish contacts with grocers and other tradesmen who would saunter over and look at the quality of cheese, butter, jams and other preserves and the like for stocking their stores.
They were also keen on establishing good contact with farmers who could produce the best beef and pork and poultry.
Townspeople started visiting the show to both see how their farming friends were getting on and making a serious social occasion of the show when the miniscule colonial community could actually get together.
Since farmers, especially the better farmers who would not miss the show, made money there were obviously those who started exhibiting the sort of goods and services farmers might want to buy, and that is when the commercial aspects of the show started appearing and the need for a permanent site led to a move to the other side of the western spur of the Kopje and the present site of Exhibition Park.
From there the show chugged along for decades, growing bigger each year but not changing much in intent, with the agricultural part still a major part of the show, and the prize giving the major event.
This is still why the official opening is on the Friday, after the agricultural classes have been judged. The townsfolk side kept growing faster, meaning the gates opened earlier in the week, and a lot of extra exhibiting was done on the eastern side of Exhibition Park, as the show became more town dominated.
This obviously needs to be retained, but the agricultural society needs to work out how to build up the farming side once again.
This could possibly be done through far stronger links to the old and new district shows that are now starting to flourish in farming areas, the old shows dating from colonial times and the new district shows that are arising as communities want what those farmers more than a century ago wanted, an event to show what they could do, compete against their fellows, establish contact with suppliers, and start building relations with those who would buy what they produced.
A more systematic approach would see the winners of these district shows being invited to Harare for the national show, where the top tier of the farming community could see who exactly was the very best and where excellence could be recognised and rewarded.
There is a cachet in breeding the best cattle, growing the highest quality tobacco or grain, and so on through the range of farming production.
This would also be the occasion when what we hope will be a growing rural agro-processing industry can make itself known and establish and grow markets.
In many countries fairly small communities of farmers process specialist products from their areas, doing the processing on-farm or in the villages and small towns in their communities.
This is important as we continue to develop rural Zimbabwe and increase incomes.
Already there are some who are in commercial production of certain specialist food products, in very small volumes, and who sell through specialist food shops in northern suburban Harare, but a lot more could be done to both extend the ranges, build up volumes and rapidly bring in more producers.
Here the show could be critical. Obviously those who win prizes or are judged to be highly commended will find it easier to build markets more quickly, and in any case a show in the largest city in the country is the most obvious place to meet customers and potential customers.
The show was almost from its beginning a place and an event where town met farm. It became more and more an event where the town side became totally dominant, and thus it lost some of its special atmosphere.
This it still needs to regain by working on building up the middle part of its name, agriculture, and without diminishing the commercial side creating a better balance between town and farm and bringing the farmers back into the centre of the show.
Online Reporter