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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight
IT is that time of the year again when the goings-on at the country’s largest fresh produce market — Mbare Musika become so topical that they are discussed to the point of saturation.
Despite this pervasive interest from stakeholders from near and far, it seems the subject of the highly animated discussion has always remained the same or even further deteriorated.
Here I am talking about the situation of the fresh produce farmer who comes from as far afield as Mudzi, Mutoko, Rusape, Murewa and even stone’s throw away places like Domboshava and Seke who continues to bear the brunt of the incompetency of essential service providers when she comes to sell her produce daily.
For every day under the sun that she comes to sell her produce at the market she parts with US$10, down from US$16.
This climb down on charges was only effected late last year following what seemed like an eternity of pestering the City Fathers to spare a thought for the poor farmers whose day starts at 0500hrs and ends at 1100hrs.
Some farmers recently told me that this closing time sometimes fluctuates between time 1100hra and 1300hrs upon which they are ordered to hurriedly close shop and go.
This is the time at which the nightmare begins for those with leftovers, as they are faced with the unenviable task of finding a place to store it.
There are no warehouse facilities at Mbare Musika, which means farmers either just leave the stuff in the market stalls where security is an absolute joke or they agree as groups on who to leave behind keeping an eye on it.
Trading space has suddenly become a cake around Mbare with residents reportedly turning some of their houses and tuck shops into warehouses where farmers rent space for produce storage – of course for a fee.
How the produce will be stored there is anybody’s guess but the following morning the farmer will return to try and push sales and clear the stuff.
Sometimes sales are so depressed that at the closing time farmers are forced to sell stuff to residents for a song, whereupon the residents immediately set up their roadside markets and start selling at competitive prices, which leaves the farmer on the losing end always.
The sad reality here is that the farmer’s daily business at the market is also generating employment and sustaining livelihoods and not just livelihoods but better livelihoods elsewhere when the producer is wallowing in poverty somewhere in Uzumba-Maramba, Mutoko or Goromonzi.
That Mbare fresh produce market is the largest in the country in terms of volume and value of trade is not a matter for debate but the way this big market is treating the people that sustain its dominance over all other such markets across the country leaves a lot to be desired.
It is owned by the City of Harare. There market has no cold-chain infrastructure although the City Fathers have since time immemorial been looking for partners to invest in that area.
What boggles the mind is the fact that millions of dollars exchange hands daily to oil the multi-million dollar Mbare economy yet there does not seem to be any effort to plough back into making the place habitable for the people that bring those loads of cash daily.
The puddles of mud that used to trigger loads of anxiety for farmers each time they think of going to do business at Mbare 10 or so years ago are still there and even getting worse with the ballooning numbers of people visiting the place and broadening lines of trade.
Ablution or even boarding facilities for those that might sleep over are not readily available.
The steep hourly parking fees council charges customers, would-be customers and those delivering produce make everything nightmarish with some ending up parking in residents’ yards for a less punishing charge of course.
Mbare Musika rakes in revenue from all directions starting from the bus rank where buses pay fees of US$20 per entry after dropping from US$30 with the majority of informal traders parting with US$25 down from US$70 per month for the open air space they use.
Flea market traders pay US$50 a month while a vegetable market needs US$8 a day down from US$10, push carts from pay US$7 weekly down from US$14 while porters now pay US$5 weekly after it was reviewed downwards from US$10.
A simple structure market at the giant market requires the operator to pay US$25 per month down from US$70 with the open air vegetable market needing US$25 a month down from US$40 and truck traders US$20 a day.
The list is seemingly endless, which means there are many revenue streams coming into the council’s coffers daily, weekly and monthly.
At the end of every financial year, Mbare Musika alone can safely brag about being Harare City’s cash cow so there is no reason for it not to be able to fund its own improvements to make life easier for those who bring in the cash.
May be the City Fathers may need to learn a thing or two from Government’s devolution programme that emphasises the need for resources generated from a particular area to be ploughed back into developing it and its people.
This idea of making Mbare Musika just a hunting ground where council makes its money and ship it to be used elsewhere is not consistent with the current winds of development sweeping across the country.
At the moment, the fresh produce farmer is under bombardment from all directions. While the blazing heat under which she comes to the market will not help preserve the quality of the produce, the conditions at the market that are not user-friendly are making her life hell.
It is not a secret that fresh produce that comes to the market in open trucks and under immense heat quickly loses quality and when that happens it means the monetary value is also lost.
Upon arriving at the market buyers will be looking for the freshest stuff first before they can settle for something of low quality, which leaves the farmer in a catch-22 situation.
The long and short of my argument is that most of these farmers are always producing crops at a loss and their toil will not yield anything meaningful if the powers that be do not intervene to instil order.
It is sad that service providers ranging from the transporter who brings farmers to Mbare to the council officials they will work with when they get to Mbare are all targeting to get a piece of them.
And for council to make them pay every day for half-baked services is a misdemeanors analogous to an act of profanity in a great temple.
They should at least put on a human face and create an environment that allows the farmers to do their trading for longer hours than is currently happening.
They are told to vacate the premises purportedly to make way for cleaners yet the following day the place will be looking dirtier than previously.
It seems happiness will remain just but an occasional episode in the general drama of pain in the life of the smallholder fresh produce farmer.
Online Reporter