adminElita Chikwati Senior Agriculture Reporter
Farmers have welcomed the 2020 National Budget for prioritising irrigation, agriculture funding and animal disease control, saying this will boost production, ensure food security and reduce food imports.
The farmers said they were eagerly awaiting implementation as previous budget pronoucements did not see the light of day.
Treasury has allocated $1,9 billion to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement with focus on boosting irrigation, promotion of climate smart agriculture and appropriate agriculture funding to guarantee food security.
Drought-proofing measures such as investment in irrigation infrastructure, dam construction, research and extension services and adoption of drought -resistant varieties such as traditional grains, will be put in place during the 2020 agricultural season.
Presenting the 2020 National Budget on Thursday last week, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube allocated $422, 7 million for irrigation, $521 million for veterinary services and $380 million for farmer compensation. Agriculture education and extension services got $340 million.
The Budget also projected a five percent growth in the agriculture sector with prospects of achieving the target pinned on climate smart agriculture.
“There are greater chances that 2019/2020 season will be another bad season. Such developments, if they materialise, may escalate Government expenditures on grain importation, infrastructure rehabilitation and disease control,” said Minister Ncube.
“The 2020 Budget will target irrigable hectarage to guarantee grain production of around 1,8 million tonnes.
“For this purpose, capable farmers with irrigation facilities will be identified with a view of contracting and supporting them to produce required grains specifically for food security. Similarly, the 200 hectares per district irrigation programme will be supported, taking advantage of smart agriculture, which promotes solar irrigation systems.”
Minister Ncube said Government was also creating a fiscal buffer to the tune of $165 million to cater for drought shocks and strengthening the early warning systems.
“The 2020 Budget makes a turning shift from ad-hoc planning to more forward planning, particularly in terms of availability of inputs on the market,” he said.
Minister Ncube said beginning January 2020, the Budget will establish an appropriate financing plan which ensures early build-up and ring-fencing of both local currency resources and foreign exchange in support of domestic inputs producers and importation of inputs.
“This resolves the challenge of agriculture demands competing with other programmes for both domestic and forex resources during the last quarter of the year, which apparently coincides with the start of summer cropping season,” he said.
Over 75 percent of Zimbabwe’s rural population lives in natural regions III, IV and V, where rainfall is erratic and undependable, making rain-fed farming unreliable and risky.
This makes it critical for farmers in these dry regions to supplement natural rains with irrigation to boost yields.
Studies on the impact of such investments on smallholder agriculture have shown that producers using irrigation realise significantly higher incomes than those relying on rain-fed agriculture.
With irrigation, smallholder farmers can grow high value crops, for both the local and export markets, thus effectively participating in the mainstream economy.
Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union president Mr Abdul Nyathi on Friday said the Budget was the best under the circumstances and would make significant impact if implemented.
“We have always been calling for irrigation interventions so that farmers can produce crops throughout the year,” he said. “We have experienced consecutive droughts and we can no longer rely on rainfed agriculture. There is need to boost irrigation facilities so we can produce enough food and even export.
“The situation in terms of livestock is not good. We have lost cattle to tick-borne diseases and this has affected many farmers who no longer have livestock.
“We hope these interventions announced by Minister Ncube will not be shelved until the next Budget but be implemented so we boost productivity in agriculture.”
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Mr Wonder Chabikwa said the Zimbabwean economy was agro-based and there was need to focus on agriculture as the backbone of the economy.
“Climate change has had devastating effects on the agriculture sector. Rains have become scarce and unreliable,” he said. “The only way to import substitution is through making use of the available water sources available.
“Irrigation is the only way to go. Long back we used to have a national irrigation fund where farmers would get loans to establish irrigation facilities and pay back at lower interest rates over a long period of time.
“This is how most irrigation schemes started. With irrigation facilities farmers will be able to boost production and even pay back loans.”
Mr Chabikwa said it was disappointing that farmers had lost cattle to tick-borne diseases because of lack of vaccines and dipping chemicals.
“Hopefully, this Budget will ensure vaccines are availed on time and help smallholder farmers look after their livestock,” he said.
Zimbabwe National Women Farmers’ Association Trust president Mrs Depinah Nkomo said irrigation facilities should not only be availed to schemes but Government should ensure every farmer is capacitated to produce at least a hectare of crops under irrigation.
“We welcome the Budget for addressing the challenges we were facing. Issues of funding should be looked into. Funding should be accessible and affordable,” she said.
Some farmers felt that there was need to subsidise input manufacturing companies for every farmer to access affordable inputs.
Online Reporter