adminA new executive has been elected to lead the country’s largest farmers’ organisation, the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union. The new leadership is expected to lead farmers as they seek to improve agricultural productivity. Our Senior Reporter Fortious Nhambura (FN) spoke to the ZFU’s first vice president, Mr Berean Mukwenda (BM), on the targets and the way forward for the sector.
FN: Congratulations on being elected the first vice president of the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union. A new executive has been elected to lead the ZFU. What targets do you have as a new executive?
BM: Our main target is to turn around the country’s agricultural sector. As you are aware, the theme of the congress was “Synergies for Agricultural Competitiveness”. So, we are looking at improving the country’s agricultural competitiveness. We are looking at increasing production levels so that we can catch up with other countries in the region and the world.
We really want to turn the country’s agricultural fortunes and reclaim the country’s status as the breadbasket of the region. Our aim is to ensure that Zimbabwe becomes food self-sufficient again. Top among our priorities is to improve the use of technology in the sector. We want to modernise the sector so that it compares well with other countries.
We hope to commercialise the farming sector in line with the country’s economic blueprint, Zim-Asset. We want to see the smallholder sector graduate to become commercial farmers so that they can start earning a living from their work. As a critical sector, we need to get organised.
I want to believe that some of the problems we are facing are a result of not being organised. Farmers are doing their things as individuals. As a union we want to start playing a leading role in organising services for our farmers in marketing, input procurement and tillage services. We want those things to be organised so that we increase production.
FN: What are the keys to achieving agricultural success in the country, especially in light of current economic challenges?
BM: As a country, we have the best soils in the world in terms of the nutrients, soil properties and a climate to support plant growth. We can grow any crop in the world without using greenhouse and that is a plus for us. We have optimal rainfall, good climate, day length sun and all those factors that support plant growth. That is reason enough to believe that we can succeed.
We are like a natural greenhouse. Look at the tobacco leaf. The world can produce their tobacco but will always require blending with Zimbabwean tobacco. What has been happening in the previous years is that rainfall has been erratic and not conducive to agriculture but our farmers are now experienced. We have been on the land for more than a decade and the results are now showing.
We can now see the trends in tobacco, oilseeds and maize have been going up. We now have enough experience to continually improve our yields. Even from the Government side, we have seen a refocusing on the sector. In the past we have had different programmes but no direct focus on the agricultural sector.
Now we have Zim-Asset and the thrust is on production and food security. We are also happy with policies that promote local production and discourage imports. This gives us a lot of encouragement. Even the Statutory Instrument setting the minimum price of maize means farmers can now go into season knowing that they will get something for their efforts. That in itself gives the farmer confidence to produce more because they will get a good price.
FN: The 2014/5 farming season is already underway. What type of support would you want from Government? How prepared are you for the season?
BM: Now that farmers have got resources to go back to the land, we are urging farmers to play their part and not wait for Government. Government has managed to buy maize at US$390 a tonne and that is good enough for us to go back to the land. I want to thank Government for payments that are coming through GMB. The fact that the money is going direct to the farmers means they can fund their operations. The Presidential inputs programme usually comes late or may be abused, but with the money they get from selling their produce, farmers are geared to improve production. We, however, want more participation and the involvement of farmer organisations in the formulation of policies on agriculture.
It is imperative that Government also unlocks capital so that we connect the full cycle of production which also includes labour and land.
We have got the land, an educated and skilled labour but we still want reforms in the capital markets. We are not saying Government should take money from the fiscus to fund farmers, but we want major capital reforms on the money markets to unlock money for production. At the moment the capital market has not been forthcoming and their interest rates have been repulsive. Some charge as much as 50 percent interest on loans and 30 percent for defaulting. We want the banking sector to be given incentives to fund agriculture.
FN: Given developments in the agricultural sector, is the ZFU still relevant?
BM: The union is more relevant now than before. What is needed now is to get farmers organised and increase production. Zimbabwe needs to change the mindset of the farmer for increase productivity and that can only be done through farmers’ organisations like ZFU.
Our role is to articulate farmers’ problems and challenges and forward them to Government for policy and the private sector for financing. This cannot be done by the local Member of Parliament or extension workers. Farmers’ organisations are specialised and work to tackle problems affecting the sector. Lobbying can only be done by someone who understands the sector.
Online Reporter