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Phyllis Kachere
Our Deputy News Editor Phyllis Kachere (PK) had a conversation with newly-appointed Food and Agricultural Organisation country representative Dr Chilumba David Phiri (CP) on the state of agriculture in Zimbabwe. Here are excerpts from the conversation.PK: Welcome to Zimbabwe! How did you end up here?
CP: I was appointed as a FAO sub-region co-ordinator for Southern Africa. FAO sub-region covers 16 countries in Africa; 15 in Southern Africa and one in East Africa. But in that position I was appointed FAO representative in Zimbabwe. I started working on July 8 and have been here for about five months.
PK: What is your general opinion about agriculture in Zimbabwe?
CP: Agriculture here has a lot of potential, but then I am not the first one to say that. A lot of people say that. What we need to do now is to translate that potential into real action.
I feel that Zimbabwe can go back to its breadbasket status. It has good soils, good rainfall, and an educated populace. There is no real reason why it cannot go back to where it was before.
But currently agriculture is very much characterised by low productivity. Maize for example, in Zimbabwe is six tonnes per hectare average production. That is about half of what neighbouring countries are producing, so already that is something that needs to be done.
PK: What needs to be done?
CP: Well, if you can reverse the reasons why productivity is low, in fact the over-dependence on rainfall very much, particularly in smallholder communities.
There is little irrigation, little use of the limited available irrigation and lack of power to function that irrigation to full capacity is another challenge.
That is one element why productivity is low. Of course, issues of climate change affect productivity. The other issue is low availability of inputs.
Where there are available, the smallholders cannot access them because they do not have the resources to buy them. I have observed something that sometimes certain types of agriculture practiced in certain regions do not match.
Where perhaps it should be livestock, you find farmers trying to plant maize. For example region five does not seem to be good for maize, so perhaps different cropping patterns may need to be encouraged, and if not crops then a comparative advantage for livestock. Why not concentrate on this comparative advantage?
PK: Don’t you think FAO has got a role to play in changing people’s attitudes towards the types of crop they grow depending on the prevailing weather and climate conditions?
CP: In fact FAO has been playing a major role. It supports changing the perceptions of people, a good example is an on- going project which supports livestock farmers in Matabeleland where we provide survival feeds during rainy season and also provide fattening feed.
What we have noticed is that as we do this, farmers have begun to realise that it is not about the number of livestock but it’s more the quality of the livestock. That is not enough, we have to relate that to the market and FAO is also supporting the Government in the process of developing not only in livestock but also in crop production.
PK: According to the ZIMVAC (2013) report, the food security is not quite promising, could you please tell us a little bit more?
CP: Yes, according to ZIMVAC…a significant part of the population will be affected by hunger this season compared to last year. We have to supplement the programme that Government itself has of importing maize from neighbouring countries, for example Zambia in particular.
The United Nations and other partners are supporting this effort. FAO is concerned that farmers in those environments where there is hunger are selling assets in order to secure food.
So what we are trying to do is to ensure that farmers do not lose those resources that they have in order to secure food by providing them with more assets so that as the cropping season begins, they keep supporting the Government on the input programme.
PK: How is FAO working with the other partners to ensure food security at household level?
CP: FAO is collaborating with other partners in the food security and livestock production to ensure food security. It is the first entity that we do support with our own resources around through what we call a technical co-operation programme. We have supported the Government, in capacity development, extension, policing, and gender.
We have also supported Government in post harvest from our own resources, but we also partner with resources for farmers through the EU, USAID and so on.
PK: What is this big project about?
CP: This big project is on livelihood and food security. It aims at promoting good agriculture. It also plans to promote nutritional sensitive agriculture and also focus on improving livestock production. It will also provide a possible fund to support smallholder farmers as the banking system is under crunch and because of that they are liquidity issues.
PK: What has been the impact of climate change on Zimbabwe’s agriculture?
CP: Climate change by its nature is not a fast moving process. It takes time, already observations are that the rainfall patterns have changed from what it used to be in the past. For a country that is much dependent on rainfall, it becomes difficult, because of that too many droughts are coming, or floods, either way it is a problem for agriculture.
If we are to meet with the world population food demands by 2050 we need to increase food production by 60 percent and in the developing countries by 100 percent and with climate change, it is going to be more difficult.
PK: In Zimbabwe, are we increasing food production?
CP: Unfortunately there has been a decline in food production since 2011. This year was, I think particularly bad but the expectations are that it will be better next year and we expect that there will be some sort of recovery. This will depend very much on how the rainfall pattern will develop next year, if it happens exactly as it did last year, then our hopes will be shattered.
The Government and the social services are doing their best to inform farmers on what will be happening and our hope is that the next season will not be like the previous one.
PK: Your thoughts on the impact of HIV on agriculture in Zimbabwe?
CP: We have 70 percent of the population in Zimbabwe depending on agriculture. Now if we have a population of 15 percent living with HIV, that same 15 percent is the actual people affected and these are the fathers, mothers and this will affect the whole family. It’s devastating for us. This is why we have a programme on HIV and Aids.
We have programmes that allow farmers to enrol, so perhaps change of farming techniques will be useful and we are working with the Brazilian Government and this will help farmers including those living with HIV and AIDS. We also promote nutrition education for those living with HIV and AIDS.
PK: Do you believe Zimbabwe can still feed itself?
CP: Yes, otherwise I won’t be here, according to the Director General we need to be there, we have to support the Government and thus our mission.
We have a programme to improve food security, and I am optimistic. If you see every newspaper almost every day, there is something about the importance of agriculture, which means people know the value of focusing on agriculture. Above all, there is a strong political will from the leaders of this country.
They have made pronouncements at every opportunity to talk of the importance of agriculture for Zim-Asset (Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation). Agriculture is the first drive they are looking at.
We in the UN are working with the Government in agriculture (and) environment to support the element that needs to be supported. It shows that there are elements that need to be supported in agriculture, that will transform agriculture and which will later transform the economy recovery, so I am saying I am optimistic.
PK: What are your thoughts on supporting the other group of farmers – the A2 farmers – so that they can also grow food for the country to ensure food security for all?
CP: Most seriously the focus has been on the vulnerable ones, thus the first thing is to protect those ones. But as an organisation whose mandate is to promote agriculture and food security, we have to – resources allowing – assist all farmers. We will not distinguish or discriminate, we will help them because we need them to survive. As FAO all farmers are important to us.
PK: Finally, what is your comment on the budget proposals?
CP: We think agriculture is important and Government should support it. This is important whether you are talking about Zimbabwe or any country, it is the same.
We have always emphasised that the budget should reflect the importance of agriculture.
Online Reporter