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Kudzanai Sharara
South Africa’s agriculture sector is looking at ways it can capitalise on the good soils that exist in neighbouring Zimbabwe, agricultural economist and head of agribusiness research at the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) of South Africa, Wandile Sihlobo, has said.
Speaking on Capitalk FM on Monday, Sihlobo who has written several articles on the Zimbabwean agriculture sector, said there is realisation among stakeholders in the South African agriculture sector that Zimbabwe still offers good soils, that might not necessarily be available in South Africa where competition for land use is intense.
He said there are preliminary discussions that are already taking place in South Africa to see if certain crops cannot be produced across the border in Zimbabwe.
“One of the discussions that is happening in South Africa, at least not in the main stream, there is a realisation that certain pockets of Zimbabwe might happen to have better soils than what we are currently having in South Africa.
“And we are facing a lot of competition for land in the country, the mining (sector) and all of those things, so there is a discussion to say can certain crops be produced in Zimbabwe and perhaps South Africa could import from there and add value from this side (SA).
He said South Africa will then use its efficiencies to value add for the export markets. Once we are able to produce from the Zimbabwean side, “we will look at pushing that through export markets since we have some of the efficiencies in some areas.”
“That’s what then led to the conversation to say that maybe there should be an open dialogue between the SA farming societies as well as Zimbabwean ones so that we can begin to say on our side (South Africa) these are the crops that we are facing a little bit of a challenge in producing and Zimbabwe can you go back and produce wheat and go back to the areas that you were producing in,” said Sihlobo.
Sihlobo said the next thing will then be to find out what it is that Zimbabwean farmers need to be put in place. In the past he has suggested that Zimbabwe collaborate with SA’s farming sector, which would bring the knowledge and skills of modern farming and boost cross-border knowledge-sharing.
“Obviously there is a room for the skills transfer but the most urgent one is for SA technology to Zimbabwe and SA finance in terms of inputs to get to Zimbabwe and all off these obviously can be discussed and agreed at a technical level but I think it does need some sort of diplomacy in there.”
While small scale farmers seem to have done well, if one looks at the successes of tobacco farmers, who are largely small scale, large scale farmers with larger landholdings have struggled. Lack of finance capital for many has meant they have not got off the ground and some have significant areas of under-utilised land, with infrastructure in disrepair.
Sihlobo believes the fact that Zimbabwe’s economic policy is predicated on agriculture with about 67 percent of Zimbabwe’s population employed in primary agriculture, according to 2014 data from the World Bank, is a good starting point.
“So having agriculture discussions at national level (is important), I think from South Africa, discussions will then look at what to sort help is needed.
Sihlobo, however, said discussions on how best the two economies can collaborate are still confined in South Africa although some agriculture related companies have started setting base in Zimbabwe.
“We have not started official cross border discussions yet, but there are several South African companies that are working on crop insurance that have recently moved and opened shop in Zimbabwe, so as these things start to happen on the ground that’s where that discussion will start to gain a little bit of traction.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union chief economist Prince Kuipa, agreed and said there is need for cross fertilisation between the countries in terms of benefiting from one country’s comparative advantage with the other, “so that we are not like operating in silos.”
He said as the two countries advocate for self-sufficiency, they should do it from a regional point of view, “there is still a gap in terms of actualising what we are discussing here (collaboration.)
“Policy makers must facilitate business for those who want to invest in the land, if the investment environment is conducive, investors from other countries will be able to come and capitalise on endowments that are in Zimbabwe in terms of water, land and climate
“So it is about us in Zimbabwe working on our investment climate as well so that we attract those investors from SA and investment of technologies that are across the border to be able to come into our country and therefore benefit and leverage on the advancement that has taken place in our neighbours especially in South Africa,” said Kuipa.
Bongani Ndlovu