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Fungi Kwaramba-Political Editor
THE reconfiguration of agrarian land in the country at the turn of the millennium came at a costly price for Zimbabwe, as the West, whose kith and kin had been dispossessed of land, turned the heat on a mission to make the people turn against the ruling party, Zanu PF, and torpedo the revolution.
To achieve its mission, the West adopted a raft of economic sanctions, which still subsist, that are designed to bleed Zimbabwe’s economy and, therefore, portray indigenous blacks as incompetent farmers who could not feed the nation.
They even sought, and received validation from some sponsored artists, like Thomas Mapfumo, a once-popular musician whose star has long dimmed.
Mapfumo came up with the song “Marima Nzara”, a track that cast aspersions on the land reform programme insinuating that the revolution was an invitation of hunger and deprivation in Zimbabwe.
Time, the greatest teacher, has hopefully taught him a lesson – he was wrong.
But that was a digression, for Mapfumo was only, but a pawn in the grand scheme of things, the West’s mission to make Zimbabweans hungry and angry and a case study of failure to keep some timid African nations on the leash.
For more than a decade, that mission was executed with reckless abandon and glee, as the country’s currency began to tumble, triggering runaway inflation, and an economic implosion that was characterised by job losses.
The country’s agriculture sector, for ages, the mainstay of the country’s economy was in shambles, lagging behind in terms of mechanisation and modernisation, as the West, historically the source of Zimbabwe’s agrarian equipment and machinery literally put all stops to ensure that the country’s major contributor to the GDP collapsed.
Not that the West was really discreet about its evil intentions.
In June 2000, while preparing for a debate in the US Senate on the misnamed Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, (ZIDERA) former United States assistant secretary of State for African Affairs Chester Crocker made it clear that the purposes of the sanctions were to squeeze Zimbabwe and make the people turn against the Zanu PF Government.
“To separate the Zimbabwean people from Zanu PF, we are going to have to make their economy scream, and I hope you, senators, have the stomach for what you have to do,” he said.
It is, therefore, trite that the whole idea of the illegal economic sanctions was to decimate Zimbabwe’s agriculture, the idea was to make sure that the country would not mechanise and modernise the sector, and funding towards Zimbabwe from international lenders was completely cut off, leaving Zimbabwe on its own.
But the advent of the Second Republic with President Mnangagwa’s pillar foreign policy of engagement and re-engagement has seen new diplomatic frontiers being borne as was on display last week when Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko visited Zimbabwe.
He aptly said, “sanctions on Belarus and Zimbabwe were not just a curse but also a blessing, because if not for the sanctions, maybe Zimbabwe would continue trading with the West, selling its natural resources”.
Indeed, the country’s agriculture sector is on a rebound, thanks to President Mnangagwa’s thrust of mechanisation, with this year’s wheat yields offering ample evidence that indigenous farmers, who started from zero, with zero access to lines of credit that former white farmers enjoyed, have come of age and are the heroes of the country’s agrarian revolution.
That, of course, could only be attained because of President Mnangagwa’s who just last week launched the second phase of the farm mechanisation programme where Zimbabwe took delivery of an additional 1 300 tractors, 14 combine harvesters, and disc harrows.
The first phase saw 474 tractors, 60 combine harvesters, 210 planters, and five low-bed trucks being delivered to the country and distributed to farmers through the Land Bank and CBZ.
More are coming and the agricultural sector is being modernised and mechanised in sync with the National Development Strategy 1, which pivots the private sector at the apex of the country’s development towards Vision 2030, to become an upper-middle-class economy.
Supporting the mechanisation of the sector, Government has set aside a whooping US$1,2 billion for the construction of 12 high-impact dams across the country in line with the Second Republic’s vision of transforming Zimbabwe into an upper-middle-income economy by 2030, where mechanisation is vital.
It is not just idle talk.
Under the Second Republic farming is turning into a serious enterprise that is underpinned by robust financing models such as the Agricultural Finance Corporation Holdings (AFCH), which has become a key cog in agriculture financing.
Economist and researcher Mr Alex Munyonga said the President has made a giant stride towards actualising the agricultural potentiality that has not been fully utilised.
“The aggression that Zimbabwe received from the West following the Land Reform programme signalled and affirmed the envy that the West have for wealthy Zimbabwean agricultural and human resources. Without bold and vibrant agricultural policies and financial support, Zimbabwe continued to starve amid abundance.
“It is refreshing to hear the President reading the riot act and calling all agricultural stakeholders to hit the ground running. Quite several individuals indeed enjoy entitlements to land with no contribution to the national fiscus through production.
“Farming is a business and should be treated thus. With a plenitude of qualified agricultural personnel churned from tertiary institutions year by year, support through the Land Bank will be a breakthrough for Zimbabwean socio-economic transformation,” Mr Munyonga said.
He said it had to be noted that the success of this project will be a wake-up call for most African countries that are so nearer to their natural resources, yet so estranged from the proceeds.
“As such Zimbabwe has to brace for stumbling blocks coming from the country’s detractors as they try to prove that the country is incapable of extricating herself from economic mud without the help of foreign aid,” said Mr Munyonga.
“What Zimbabwe needs to do then is to make sure that there is accountability in the distribution of the resources. There should also be strict monitoring and evaluation of productivity trends. Thoughts not translated into action are like an aborted foetus that does not count in a census.
“As such, all stakeholders should hit the ground running, support the noble Land Bank initiative from the President, be accountable and see Zimbabwe enjoying Vision 2030 goals.
“If well implemented and monitored, the Land Bank will seal the ‘leaking seams’ of the Land Reform.”
It is through this prism that Zimbabwe’s agricultural revolution, between 2020 and 2021 witnessed a 199 percent crop yield for maize harvest while for traditional crops the percentage during the same period stood at 128, and 94 percent for the cotton harvest.
The Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy which was launched in 2020 to achieve a US$8,2 billion agriculture economy by 2025.
This target was achieved in just one year. In 2021, the agricultural industry grew by a stellar 36.2 percent to US$8,19 billion.
This record growth in agriculture was partially responsible for Zimbabwe’s record-breaking annual growth of 7,8 percent predicted for 2021, the highest in Africa in 2021.
The Agriculture and Food Systems Strategy was launched as an integral part of the national development agenda being driven by President Mnangagwa.
The strategy is underpinned by growing the economy, ensuring Zimbabwe grows its own food and ensuring that a vast swathe of rural families moves from poverty to growing affluence with the production rises spread right across the sectors.
Online Reporter
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