adminFreedom Mutanda Farming Correspondent
IT IS a time-worn cliché that Zimbabweans are farmers to the bone. From the time early man graduated from the use of stone implements to the early iron-age period, we have been known as farmers. Indeed, in the 1890s the whites relied on African agriculture for sustenance. Thus, at the inception of SADCC, the forerunner to SADC, leaders saw it fit to bestow the food security portfolio onto this great nation, Zimbabwe.
For a decade, we served that portfolio with distinction until 2001 or thereabouts. Suddenly, our agriculture seemed to have fallen into a bottomless pit with no hope it will rise. We are not a nation of whiners. We are fighters and that must be exhibited in our tackling of the land issue in our nation. We can revitalise our agriculture systems and come away stronger. It’s a matter of setting our priorities right and we set about doing the right thing; it might be painful in the short term, but on the whole our children will be happy.
There were times when ‘‘green’’ was the dominant colour in the Lowveld in winter, thanks to the wheat grown in Middle Sabi. At that time, winter wheat ruled the roost. No, it wasn’t because the whites controlled land. To subscribe to that notion is a tacit admission that Africans are inherently inferior to whites and they can’t grow crops without the wisdom of the white man. Nothing is further from the truth.
Farming in the colonial era
White people have always looked after the interests of their own. Natural, isn’t it? Therefore, as Zimbabweans, we have to look after the interests of our own. Do we buy food from Zimbabwe? Food for thought.
Rhodesians established the Agriculture Finance Corporation (AFC) that is now known as Agribank, specifically to empower the white farming community. Concessionary loans were advanced to the farmers for them to make it in the business of farming. Every season they received funding making it possible for farming to be a lucrative business venture.
One agriculture expert, Collins Mashava, said the Rhodesian government incentivised whites to go out there and farm. In the AFC application form, the white man and his wife got a salary each and all other expenses such as school fees were part of the loan. These loans were short-term loans that were payable over a one to five-year period at 3-5 percent. The long-term loans catered for heavy machinery investments and went up to 20 years. In the first year, the farmer had a grace period.
Rewind to the present scenario where some farmers are losing their immovable properties to pay off loans that funded their agriculture production.
Farming was a business.
In the wake of the end of the Second World War in 1945, huge numbers of white immigrants made a beeline for Southern Rhodesia. With the accompanying incentives associated with farming put by the authorities on the table, Rhodesia was an ideal destination for war refugees. Thus, farming became the bedrock of the white economy with the golden leaf — tobacco — being the number one foreign currency earner for the nation.
Various projects were initiated to ensure that farming remained viable. In the 1960s, the Sabi-Limpopo project along the Save River resulted in the establishment of Middle Sabi and Chisumbanje estates which up to now are the ARDA flagships. Irrigation, thus, became the mainstay of agricultural activities in the Lowveld; it was a question in which a quasi-government entity and commercial farmers did the business they know best — farming.
During those days, agriculture and industry were bosom buddies. Cooking oil was never imported. In that vein, our industry can of necessity blame agriculture for their failure to reach optimum capacity utilisation thresholds.
Post-independence farming
Majority rule came in 1980 after a protracted war of liberation spearheaded by ZANLA and ZIPRA. The freedom fighters had a national grievance list that the commissars talked about in the all-night meetings generally called ‘‘pungwes’’. The land dispossession was the eminent grievance on the list. Negotiations at Lancaster House nearly stalled as a result of the bellicosity of the white regime that did not countenance the idea of losing the land. However, cool heads prevailed and the talks were successful as a 10-year hiatus was agreed upon for the black government to use the willing buyer-willing seller principle.
Africans who got land under the models A-D obtained government support in terms of inputs although budgetary support continued to hamper full implementation by the government. Consequently, some resettlement schemes such as Musirizwi did not make a big impact on the community. It is notable that Makwaha Dairy Project in Chipinge did well under the circumstances.
Meanwhile, a mere 70 000 families are the only beneficiaries of the first phase of resettlement in the first 10 years of independence. The first phase of resettlement was unable to de-congest the rural areas.
The 1992 Land Acquisition Act did not prod the whites to action inasfar as sharing their land was concerned. Pleas from the government for them to take land lying idle fell on deaf ears.
The Svosve people took land from a nearby farm in 1998 and that was a warning of things to come. 2000 land invasions came; the government could not remain aloof as its people cried for the land. As they say, the rest is history.
Post 2000 land use
It is a fact that more than 300 000 families benefited from the land reform programme. What is in dispute is the benefit to the economy. Did the economy take off as a result of empowering the largely landless blacks? In those bygone days, white farmers contributed to the economy with the active financial support from banks.
Yes, the government acted as a guarantor. In Middle Sabi, many indigenous farmers got 40 hectares of land in an area where water was there throughout the year because of the Save and the Osborne Dam. Proximity to the GMB depot ensured the quick dispersal of inputs to the farmers. Fuel was easily obtained through the government. Things seemed to be going on well. Agribank disbursed loans for the farmers to use for purposes of farming.
A Middle Sabi farmer, Rushwaya, complained about the punitive interest rates charged by banks on the loans disbursed, “15% is a bit steep and the repayment period is too short for the farmer to realise any profit or even break even.”
For a time, farming flourished with the farmers giving the GMB something to smile about. In no time, the hectarage shrunk as farmers complained about the hyper-inflation and failure to get good prices for their products. Those gripes went on until there was no farming worth its salt going on.
Some farmers have not received payment from the GMB on the wheat they sent to the parastatal in 2007 with the latter saying the RBZ has to pay. In the meantime, the farmer has been grounded.
Surprisingly, Masversion Maoneke and Sakuhuni, A2 farmers in Middle Save, continue to defy the odds as they reap good harvests after good harvests. One immediately thinks about Ketai Muchawaya who sang:
Kana uchida kuguta, sevenza nesimba/Ini ndakazviona iwe rimwe gore vamwe vachifa nenzara vamwe vachiguta/Minda iri pamwe vamwe vachifa nenzara
These two farmers are doing well in spite of the well-documented ills that visit the farming sector. What is the secret?
Marvesion said: “Young man, farming requires your presence at the farm. You have to plan meticulously and use the right amounts of inputs for you to succeed. I can’t complain much on the pricing. What I urge the authorities to do is timely distribution of inputs as well as expeditious payments of money by GMB.”
Maoneke, through farming, was able to buy tractors, planters, two personal vehicles and a haulage truck. When he arrived at Farm 1 he inherited a top-of-the-range irrigation system, the centre pivot that he was able to maintain up to now. By so doing some expenses related to irrigation were removed or halved.
Today the two, Sakuhuni and Maoneke, are Pannar contract farmers for sugar beans. They are happy beneficiaries of the land reform programme.
One area that needs to be re-visited is the joint ownerships of farms. Utilities that are already expensive have to be shared by the farmers. Unfortunately, a good number are reluctant to share with the result that the expenses are very high and the farm is bogged down for failure to pay.
Farming and Zim-Asset
This economic blueprint emphasises food security as a prerequisite for economic development. With that in mind, farmers need training. Chipinge Horticulture College is close to the Middle Sabi farming zone. There are Agritex officials who help farmers. That is good. It is my humble submission that these farmers must be educated on the fine print of farming at that college on a block release basis. Farming is a business that needs business skills. In other areas, I am sure they have vocational colleges nearby. Use those educational institutions to make farmers become farming literate.
In the Bible, Jesus related the parable of the talents. One of the characters in the story received one talent; he buried it. Farmers can’t afford to bury their talents and help other countries benefit through selling cheap imports to us.
Auditing the land is the first thing we must do as Zimbabweans. Who is in what farm? We are not witch hunters.
“Identify those farms that are idle and determine the reasons behind that. Give that farmer resources for the new farming season and tell him or her that something in terms of outputs must come out or else . . . Farmers must take farming as a business not for speculative purposes,” an Agritex officer who refused to be named told me recently.
Those farms that remain undeveloped and under-utilised must be given to people who can demonstrate that they can be good farmers. Some of these agricultural college graduates can be given farms; resultantly, the fiscus is helped as well.
A2 farmers must gradually be weaned from free handouts for the government to help upcoming farmers from colleges. The farmers should put their money where their mouths are. Like any business, they should fully shoulder the burden of capitalising the farms.
An expert agronomist, Teramai Maposa, said: “Security of tenure is everything in business, so a model has to be devised to give farmers title that can be transferable.”
However, some experts contend that there is a real risk of some land reform beneficiaries being tempted to sell the land directly or through borrowing and deliberately defaulting. In such a situation, the government is duty bound to pass legislation that forestalls such things from happening or even if it comes to that, an enabling Act would cover those loopholes.
A development economist, Ranga Makwata, maintains that corporate farming may enhance the food situation in the country as well as accelerate farming stature. In this way, indigenous farmers farm alongside a company that has skills, capital and markets.
Green fuels is a case in point. The company can take on board all A2 farmers that are its neighbours and make them their out-growers in a win-win situation. Hippo Valley has out-growers that have to meet strict standards. Failure to do so would result in their cane being discarded. By so doing the farmer gets value for his crop while the company gets its profit as well.
Bold decisions may have to be made by farmers, business and government for the awakening of agriculture to take place.
Public-private partnerships have been developed elsewhere in the world including Zimbabwe. Once we do that we will be able to have a significant saving in the import bill for the nation thereby enabling the saved money to go into employment-generating projects.
Industry can never wake up when farming is in the doldrums. Mutare had a number of factories that owed their existence to farming and they have since closed shop. Hopefully, with the emergence of farming as a key sector in the economic revival of our great nation, industrial recovery will follow suit.
Smallholder irrigation schemes reduce poverty to a large extent. That half acre which produces two or three crops per year goes a long way in capacitating people. Nyanyadzi, Dewure, Birchenough, Mutema, Chibuwe and Madzadza irrigation schemes have transformed the lives of many families. Manicaland has several dilapidated schemes that need to be revitalised. The government, the donor community and the private sector can help a lot. We have to identify markets for the produce at competitive prices for the farmer to derive maximum benefit from his sweat.
Inasmuch as commercial farmers need help, it is the communal farmers who need help the most. If hunger is eradicated in the communal lands, then the job of government as the last frontier of a social safety net is made easier.
Agritex officers in the communal areas have to do their jobs and not write reports from the comforts of their homes.
We cannot continue to import food and other farm produce when our land is so blessed. Indeed it is an anathema. United we stand, divided we fall. We have to pull in the same direction for us to reach the proverbial Canaan.
Our farmers need a paradigm shift in their thinking. Financial houses must think outside the box in terms of funding mechanisms. Government efforts must be complemented by a farmer who is patriotic. Markets have to be availed for farming to be a lucrative business.
We may have to subsidise agriculture in the short term.
Online Reporter