Rating must partner Middle Sabi farmers

Freedom Mutanda
After reading a Readers’ Feedback item in The Patriot of 12-19 March 2015 in which the contributor, one Mike of Middle Sabi, lamented the looming ethanol shortage in the country owing to inadequate stocks, it set the writer thinking on the possible ways ethanol production can be boosted through an expansion programme of the area under sugar cane as we move towards using clean and environment-friendly fuels.

One way to do that is to have a partnership on a win-win basis between Rating Investments owned by the business mogul, Billy Rautenbach, and the empowered A2 farmers in Middle Sabi, to have a greenbelt that stretches from Farm 1 to Farm 44 and in the process make the 70 to 80 farmers fully participate in the growth of the Zimbabwean economy under the auspices of ZIM-ASsET.

One of British Literature greatest novelists, Charles Dickens, wrote “A Tale of Two Cities,’’ which was a look at London and Paris in the aftermath of The French Revolution in 1789.

Today, in Middle Sabi, it is a question of a tale of two farmlands, Rating Investments’ green sugar cane fields and the brown fields of the A2 farmers who can’t effectively utilise their fields due to a plethora of reasons one of which is the sanctions regime that makes farming an expensive venture for the majority of the black farmers who got the plots in the wake of the agrarian reform that has its roots in the year 2000.

These brown fields are not everyone’s cup of tea, but life must be breathed into them for the benefit all. Juxtaposing green and brown is not edifying at all.
A2 farmers have found the going tough with each passing season; it’s time to put a full stop to that with the farmers and Rautenbach sitting down as brothers should, and enter into an agreement with the beleaguered farmers as well as making the business tycoon realise immense benefit from the partnership.

It must never be a rider and horse partnership. Rather, the two parties should derive benefits which may not be huge in the short term but in the long run, huge returns will accrue. The master and servant relationship is dead and buried in the post-colonial state.

Middle Sabi has almost 10 000 hectares that I believe if utilised fully, would bring forth a lot of benefits to the surrounding communities in particular and the Zimbabwean economy as a whole. Rating Investments currently uses close to 3 500 hectares in growing the sugar cane that is transported to the Chisumbanje Mill.

Obviously, among the overheads which militate against the profitability of the business venture is the transport factor. In the event that the A2 farmers are brought together with the investor, chances are high that a mill would have to be sited at Middle Sabi; that way, there would be full realisation of dividends on the side of the shareholders.
Some time ago, around 2010, Rautenbach had a meeting with the farmers where the two sides — A2 farmers in Middle Sabi and Rautenbach — put their cards on the table. Some farmers wanted a huge chunk of profit after the investor had poured some money into the project while others felt that the land reform programme had to be a success through public-private partnerships. It is said the investor promised to come back and since then the farmers had been “waiting for Godot’’ as it were.

It is my humble submission that times for posturing are over. Everyone ought to think of how to make Zimbabwe get back to walking ways. Early this year, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Douglas Mombeshora, enunciated a policy where he encouraged farmers to partner anyone regardless of colour in order to resuscitate the ailing agriculture sector.

Desperate times need desperate measures and that is what the writer is positing in this piece.
It is in the spirit of that policy announcement that I strongly feel Mike of Middle Sabi was dead right in griping about ethanol shortage when there is plenty of land and labour to make the Middle Sabi a greenbelt.

ZIM-ASSET cries out for employment creation. We have several villages that are around the farming region of Middle Sabi and these include Mutema, Musani, Kondo, Chibuwe and Rimbi, among others. If Rating, with about 3 500 hectares, has nearly 1 000 employees and we add the remaining 4 500 hectares or so, then it means more people would join the work force. Include the casual labourers and then the number can rise to 10 000 people or more.

Triangle and Hippo Valley employ thousands of people; in the same vein, Middle Sabi would become a major employment hub in Chipinge district with other downstream industries coming in, then a whole new world would be fashioned out of the previously moribund area.

Surprisingly, down there at Garahwa and other nearby communities, Greenfuel has running battles with local people who want to remain close to their relatives’ graves yet the company is failing to negotiate with A2 farmers in Middle Sabi to grow sugar cane in their farms and work out modalities that are of mutual benefit.

At Chinyamukwakwa, the company has to build new infrastructure such as roads and erection of canals among other things. In terms of development, that is superb. However, in Middle Sabi, there is constant supply of water from the Sabi River and electricity together with labour which is abundant. Does it not make economic sense in this depressed economy to make use of what we have and expand after we have made some profit? That is food for thought for the two protagonists, Rating Investments on one hand and the A2 farmers on the other.

Rating Investments has the technical know-how and the machinery for fruitful farming. Add to that, the money the company has access to funds, be they from off-shore sources or the local banks.

One may hasten to ask: “How can you give the A2 farmers a chance to resurrect their fortunes when they have failed to be competent farmers before?”
Painting everyone with the same brush will never produce good results. GMB records show that new farmers brought wheat, maize and soya beans to the quasi-government entity from 2000 until farming ground to a halt due to some factors which are not the subject of this instalment and some of them were not paid. Rotten apples may be found in any business, but one must draw a line between a good business proposal and a bad one.

Government established the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority to capacitate the rural areas and irrigation schemes soon after independence. With the partnership between ARDA and Rating, farmers expected to be part of the vision of this public-private partnership in view of the bigger picture at stake as the Government wanted an economic mountain to come out of the land reform programme frowned upon by some sections of the world.

Yes, Rating Investments has helped Irrigation Schemes at Taona, Madzadza and Musikavanhu. That is commendable but it is the turn of the A2 farmers to be aided in our quest to make Zimbabwe great again.

One farmer who refused to be named said: “Land is lying idle because funding is proving to be a problem to us. If Rating Investments come on board, there would be a sea change in fortunes for most people in the area. Let’s say each hectare requires five people. Multiply that by 4 500 hectares and you would find out how beneficial it would be for everyone concerned.”

Indeed, the local schools, Sabi Valley School and Chipangayi Secondary School, have problems with enrolment figures as they are always fluctuating due to workers who are always on the move. Even payment of school fees is haphazard rendering development of these schools to be severely hampered.

A green Middle Sabi will see these schools improve in terms of enrolment and infrastructure. Because of that, the social cluster of ZIM-ASSET is given prominence.
ZIM-ASSET is very passionate and clear about beneficiation. A mill that is erected at Middle Sabi would see the by-products help the surrounding areas. Stockfeed will help cattle owners fatten their animals; resuscitation of the beef industry starts from the local area. In that regard, the country can dream of having its exports licence renewed with other countries. We can safely announce the “Buy Zimbabwe” campaign in the full knowledge that supply of beef products will always be constant.

So much has been said about electricity supplies being erratic and prone to sudden interruptions through unscheduled load shedding. A mill at Middle Sabi will certainly produce bagasse that makes clean electricity which will be fed into the national grid. With some people estimating that the electricity produced at Chisumbanje Mill can power the whole of Manicaland, we would be assured of uninterrupted electricity supply for households as well as industry. How would the Government and the nation benefit?

Workers and companies pay PAYE( Pay As You Earn) and corporate tax which is a boon to the country’s desire for an exponential growth. At the Rural Service Centre, shops fill up and VAT is paid to the State through sales. The Chipinge Rural District Council benefits as people buy stands at competitive prices. Sooner rather than later, Chipangayi may be granted town status with the attendant benefits of that tag.

We complain about 92% of Government’s budget going towards the public wage bill. If our agriculture and industry get into the business of production, the percentage of recurrent expenditure will go down as well.

One war veteran, Cde Sithole, was very passionate, “Many people were involved in the war for the total emancipation of the Zimbabweans. A partnership between Rating Investments and the farmers will definitely breathe life to this area. Elements of mistrust can be eradicated when the Government acts as a referee in the discussion. The green revolution must start soon so that by this time next year, every field has green sugar cane.”

At one time, Greenfuel successfully lobbied Government to raise the ethanol component threshold to between 15 percent and 20 percent at the back of huge supplies, but then it backtracked to 5 percent when it realised it could not sustain that. Against such a background, isn’t it a sound economic argument to bring the two — A2 farmers and Rating Investments with specific reference to Billy Rautenbach — to the discussion table for the more than 20 000 people who would benefit and of course other downstream industries would derive economic prosperity due to that partnership?

Cultural benefits would return to the area. Soccer clubs, cultural clubs such as the Muchongoyo and Chinyambera dances would make a welcome return. Sundays are normally reserved for entertainment, but of late after one had visited church, one goes back home and morosely look at the sky for a life devoid of leisure.

No one pointed a finger at anyone as the instigator of boredom on Sundays; what we are suggesting is that when the indigenous farmers get into a business partnership with Billy Rautenbach, their dreams and his merge for their mutual benefit but more importantly, employment will be created.

As a nation, we are not yet out of the woods, economically; therefore, every effort must be made to get the wheels of the economy move and the Middle Sabi green belt and mill after a partnership of some sort, is a step in the right direction.

Drought looms in the horizon. Very soon, the Government’s efforts of ensuring that no one starves will bear fruit; we don’t want in any way to over-burden the Government as it looks for food aid. If employment has been created through the envisaged green belt, then fewer people would line up for food aid. Farmers may actually put aside some hectares to grow maize for their workers and the other cluster in ZIM-ASSET on food security would have been catered for.

It remains to be seen whether the A2 farmers and Billy Rautenbach will sit down and chart the way forward for the benefit of the Chipinge West and Musikavanhu constituencies and other parts of the country.

Already, Buhera residents come to work but beneficiation is the way to go. United we stand, divided we fall. Let the two parties find each other and the nation will benefit.