admin
Ndakaripa M. Hungwe
Rural development is a process meant to improve quality of lives and economic well-being of people living in rural areas. Historically developing rural areas has been top down with a heavy-handed involvement of central Government in most aspects of rural lives. But over time, it has been seen imperative to promote a more bottom-up rural developmental model in which the people who live in the rural areas have a stronger role and decision making on their lives.
Having rural communities leading in their developmental aspirations is more sustainable, as people themselves seek ways to improve their lives and their locale. Ultimately Government must remain in a facilitatory role to avoid over-dependence. A developmental state should ideally focus on strategic needs and leave the citizens with own capacities to address developmental challenges. The on-going discussions on devolution by the Second Republic may provide more chances for rural people to shape a more sustainable future.
For Zimbabwe’s First Republic from 1980 to 2017 they inherited a dual economy in which most of the poor black majority lived in marginal rural areas. Agriculture in Zimbabwe has been central in defining the form and functions of rural development.
Agriculture in the development narratives has been a contested sector in Zimbabwe given the divide between commercial and non-commercial. The designated communal lands were a creation of the colonial authorities as they invested in commercial agriculture sector populated by European settlers. Zimbabwe had a specific rural and urban divide, while the rural also had a racial-class character. The distinction was of highly populated communal areas, given several types of naming such as “reserves” and “tribal trust lands”, to give the distinction of the “white European” lands where there was heavy investment in one of the most developed rural areas incomparable in most of Africa.
This historical division was such that communal areas were not only highly populated, but suffered from underinvestment in key development indicators such as education, health, roads infrastructure, and related services. During the early years of the First Republic, the Government deliberately invested in economic and social infrastructure as part of correcting the wrongs of almost 80 years of colonial history that shaped the character of the divide found in the rural areas up today.
Government adopted various policies and programs to stimulate growth and development in these areas. Over the past few years a multiplicity of policies have been crafted and adopted by central government whose major aim has been to uplift the livelihoods of the majority residing in rural areas.
The colonial strategy became largely known as the first agricultural revolution, which was racially skewed and had a highly developed European sector that was largely driven by agriculture buttressed by the manufacturing sector. The correction of this colonial history was significant in many ways, as Zimbabwe became food secure in the face of the racial divide, while investment by Government in education and primary health care placed Zimbabwe on a path towards an upper middle-income status (for whites).
Rukuni in 2004 termed Zimbabwe’s progress, the Second Agricultural Revolution in which smallholder farmers became dominant producers of maize and cotton. There was concerted support by government in input-output markets, the redirection of financing and extension to the smallholder sector.
In addition to various measures an Integrated Rural Development Plan as part of the Growth with Equity Policy was introduced to push for economic growth and development in the rural areas.
Growth points were promoted as a means to attract investment and thereby assist in developing the disadvantaged areas. It should be noted that during the colonial period, some growth centres had been established such as Gutu, Gokwe, Murewa, etc.
After independence more were established but unfortunately there was little investment in most of the growth points beyond grinding mills, general vending, small grocery stores and bottle stores.
Refocusing the rural development process to concentrate on improving the well-being of rural people and reducing rural poverty in the widest possible sense is a key developmental objective. It should be acknowledged that rural development entails much more than increasing the average income of rural populations. It envisions improving the quality of rural life in a balanced manner spatially to move the majority from material poverty.
For this to happen, the voices of the rural poor and the voices for those who represent them must be strengthened in national strategy formulation and implementation.
Sustainable local economic development thus requires that all the facets of rural economic enterprise and welfare (such as finance, community health systems skills development, research and development, etc.) be promoted. In addition, investments and development must address numerous off farm activities that would be able to trigger growth.
Development of rural areas must ideally start by investing capacities for use of land and water resources in the agriculture sector. Yet, in the case of Zimbabwe agriculture remains an enigma for it is of interest to the state, yet there is under investments in the smallholder sector. It needs to be noted that with the increasing intensity of climate change, agriculture in its traditional form will not be able to contribute meaningfully to the prosperity of rural economies.
It is important, therefore, to diversify the economy and promote non-agricultural interventions in the rural areas to stimulate new income streams. The private sector can play a huge role by focusing on the upstream and downstream activities of significant agriculture value supply chains towards enhancing the completeness of the agricultural cycle chains from farm production, processing, distribution and responding to the consumer demands in a typical model of from the farm to the plate.
Government alone cannot achieve this, as already Zimbabwe suffers from a colonial model that has had a large government footprint in the lives of rural farmers in particular. There is need for the private sector to play a key role in rural development, as most manufacturing and services companies are dependent on agriculture supply chains.
In Zimbabwe, the combination of an uncertain policy environment, a relatively high tax burden, economic imbalances, and the lack of policy clarity have left investors reluctant to venture further beyond areas they have clear control via markets.
The challenges of ensuring growth also include poor targeted financing, the challenges experienced in the economy since the late 1990s, poor planning by local authorities where some of the growth points have been allowed to mushroom but with little chances of ever developing.
Some private sector investors have not been keen to invest as there is poor tenurial security from local councils making such investments risky. In addition, there is poor infrastructure that would be conducive to private sector involvement.
To improve on investments in rural areas the following must be promoted:
Improve linkages between rural areas and the national economy. There must be more deliberate planning and channelling of investments and resources. There must be a clear relationship between growth centres and agricultural production. This also requires strengthening of farmer to market linkages.
A more area based local economic development approach through value chain addition to farm produce to avoid rural producers selling unprocessed goods. Some rural people have ventured into dried spices, vegetables, etc. For a rural industrialisation revolution to occur, more processing, more local consumption of locally processed foods must be promoted. The private sector could be encouraged to invest through provision of incentives and more effective private-public-producer-partnerships.
Provide initiatives for the development of regulatory frameworks for rural financial service provision social mobilisation to develop and deliver non-conventional financial instruments such as rural banking, rural savings and loans.
Sustainable Natural Resource Management and programmes that promotes eco-tourism, and green economy approaches.
Co-financing of technology and infrastructure that can help in solving market failures and reducing high transactions costs for rural communities.
Create a network of producers of locally produced non-conventional commodities and facilitate their engagement in market processes.
Promote and identify area specific economic drivers that encourage more product diversification such as apiculture, aquaculture including off-farm projects such as eco-tourism, arts and crafts, etc.
(This article was first published in the Maricho Magazine).
Bongani Ndlovu