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REPORTS that Zimbabwe has now attained national food self-sufficiency following last year’s good rains and the resultant bumper harvest are indeed sweet music to the ear. We learn that the country will surpass the 1,4 million tonnes target in grain and maize production. President Mugabe made the announcement of the national food self-sufficiency while opening the Harare Agricultural Show last Friday.
“We are glad that our maize and grain production is set to surpass 1,4 million tonnes, enough to ensure national food sufficiency. For the first time after many years of drought, Zimbabwe has now attained this level of production,” President Mugabe said.
While we celebrate the past year’s accomplishments, thanks to the good rains, it is important to plan ahead to ensure a good harvest this year. The country has missed its harvest targets over the years largely due to the unpredictable weather but dependence on a good rainfall season only for a good harvest is not the best strategy for the country, which like many other nations, is faced with the challenges of climate change.
It would be interesting to find out how much of the heavy rains’ runoff was collected for irrigation use around the country.
While Tokwe-Mukosi has largely been associated with floods of late, very little appears to have been done, at least for now, to turn the water curse into a blessing by harnessing the unexpected huge water reserves for irrigation.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that the country needs to show more commitment to irrigation and revive its irrigation schemes dotted around the country as a basis for sustained food security in the future.
In years when there is good rainfall, it would be a bonus for the country since it would harvest plenty from rainfed agriculture as well as its irrigation schemes that should be enough to feed the whole country. Also, the excitement over the heavy rains last year saw some experiments bearing fruit with farmers in traditionally dry areas having grown maize and harvested several tonnes of the crop.
It is important for the extension arms of Government to help in ensuring that the right varieties are grown in the right places and that our agricultural research institutions develop varieties that are suited to our climate, or the different agricultural regions within the country. As the nation plans ahead, buoyed by the good harvest, we also need to put in place farmer-friendly policies that will make marketing of their crops easier and more rewarding than is the case at present.
Elsewhere in this edition we carry an article of farmers in Binga in Matabeleland North who are expressing concern over unscrupulous buyers who have descended on their area to buy maize for prices as low as $180 a tonne in some instances.
We believe a better capacitated Grain Marketing Board would be able to serve such farmers and ensure that they are able to buy inputs so that they can return to their fields in a few months for another productive season. As the President pointed out, agriculture is the backbone of our economy, and before we talk of beneficiating agricultural produce, we need to to be assured of a sustained and sustainable agricultural production that is ably supported by input suppliers and buyers and consumers at the end of the chain.
The country has lost a lot of money in food imports over the years and those savings this year should be channelled towards research and beneficiation of agricultural products, in addition to paying our own farmers on time for delivering their grain to the GMB. We should never allow the failure to pay our farmers on time to derail our efforts to improve food security since we have seen in the past some farmers opting for cash crops such as tobacco at the expense of grain due to marketing challenges.
Let us build on last season’s success and reclaim our spot of feeding the Southern African region.
We can do it, but only if we plan properly and stay the course.
Bongani Ndlovu