adminKudzanai Gerede
As the world population continues to grow and estimated to have an additional two billion by 2050, there has been a renewed focus towards agriculture which is now seen as a focal point for future economic growth and for Africa in particular this presents huge opportunities as the sub-Saharan region boast of having the world’s most virgin and productive lands that will be necessary to feed the projected population boom.
What has been the infringing point towards realising the potential of agriculture in this region has been the exclusion of small-scale farmers in the disbursement of inputs such as skills development, technologically advanced machinery, availability of seed varieties and fertilizer and affording the small scale farmers with new basic farming methods.
Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa is widely regarded to be a successful agricultural country again if a new farming approach is put in place mainly due to its conducive weather and pedigree in farming only if small scale farmers are also brought into the fray.
Addressing journalists in Harare, United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Regional Director East and Southern Africa Division Mr Sana Jatta said: “Small holder farmers can be as equally important to the economy as everyone else”.
“Recognising those vulnerable groups can contribute to economic growth and these groups have shown that they can join the mainstream of social and economic development, provided the causes of their poverty are understood and enabling conditions for development are created”, he added.
More than 70 percent of the country’s population live in the rural areas and financial inclusion through access to banks for smallholder farmers to acquire loans are very scarce hence making it uneasy for poor farming communities to afford inputs without government support.
The Official NEPAD Year Book 2014 states ; the answer probably lie in a mix of strategic government investment and well-managed and carefully negotiated private investment as well as supporting and encouraging Africa’s small-scale farmers who currently produce about 80 percent of the continent’s agricultural output.
Through the inclusion of the small-holder farmers into the mainstream economy, Malawi presents a good example, in 2005, having accrued a 43 percent food deficit from the agricultural harvest, the Southern African country realised a 53 percent food surplus in 2009, through government subsidy on fertilizer making it easily accessible to small holder farmers at household level in rural areas.
Among other areas of focus will be the building of road networks connecting those vulnerable societies with market places, putting modern lines of communication with the outside world and putting in place new marketing strategies for their produce.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister, Joseph Made said: “At this moment we have major dams that have been constructed particularly Tokwe-Mukosi, which has the biggest areas that should be irrigated in Matibi 1 and Matibi 2 communal irrigation schemes”.
However, Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector remains under-financed and the ability to assist small-holder farmers is currently not palatable due to its fiscal quagmire.
Mr Jatta implored on the government to show commitment to its US$40 million debt to IFAD so that it is able to secure future funding.
IFAD is a specialist agency of the UN which was established as an international financial institution in 1977 and since its inception it has focused exclusively on rural poverty reduction, working with poor rural populations in developing countries to eliminate poverty, hunger and malnutrition, raise their productivity and incomes and improve the quality of their lives.
Online Reporter