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Four months from now the rains will start falling, marking the beginning of the 2015-2016 summer agricultural season.

Most farmers have already finished or are in the final stages of harvesting the crops they grew last season and have started or will soon start preparing for the new season. Without fail, the government has played a big role in the agricultural sector, working with vulnerable farmers by providing inputs directly to them and with the better resourced ones through creating a framework for third parties, often banks and agro-companies, to support. Non-governmental organisations take part too, helping poor communities.

The government last week announced that $1,7 billion is needed to fund crop and livestock production in the 2015-2016 farming season, up from $1,2 billion spent on farms last year. Finance and Economic Development Minister, Cde Patrick Chinamasa, unveiling his Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review statement on Thursday said of the total budget, $1,3 billion would be channelled to crop production with the remainder to be spent on livestock.

The government will direct $28 million towards 300,000 most vulnerable farmers while partners are expected to support the majority.

“The government is working on arrangements to bring in private sector participation in agriculture financing,” said Cde Chinamasa. “On its part, the government will primarily focus on supporting vulnerable household farmers through an input pack scheme. To capacitate farmers in preparation for the 2015-2016 agricultural season, the government will also prioritise outstanding payments to farmers amounting to $29,2 million for grain delivered during the 2014-15 marketing season.”

He said the government was co-ordinating all key actors including co-operating partners, input suppliers, financiers and farmers to ensure adequate preparatory arrangements.

The government input support package will comprise a 10kg bag of seed maize , a 50kg bag of Compound D and a bag of Ammonium Nitrate for top dressing fertilisers to each farmer.

In agriculture, time is of the essence. There is only one summer in a year and enough rains to support agriculture in Zimbabwe only fall in that period, from October to January/February. If farmers are not ready when the first rains fall, it means the year is lost and dire social and economic consequences follow.

It is for this reason that we find the government’s announcement on the funding framework for the forthcoming season most timely. We now look forward to seeing the support reaching all farmers who need it well in time so that when the initial viable rains fall, they begin to work. Financial institutions, NGOs and other partners should, as the government has already done, announce the kind of input support that they will provide now.

We don’t want to fail owing to circumstances that we can control. It is better for farmers to face challenges, as they did in the 2014-2015 season because of poor rainfall.

Yes, we encourage government partners to continue supporting national programmes, including in agricultural production, but the ideal situation is where the state supports the majority of farmers, not the prevailing situation where the market and NGOs contribute the larger chunk of all farm inputs. For now however, and given the limited fiscal space, the partners are doing exceptionally well. In the long run, we expect the government to lead in that area. The government is the most reliable development agent and partners, some of them at least, cannot be trusted all the time. Banks, for example can charge extortionate interest rates on loans or impose impossible conditions that at the end of the day, cause more challenges for farmers instead of boosting production. NGOs, according to the Zimbabwean experience, can be mischievous, as some have been exposed for attaching political conditions to their aid to poor farmers.

But farmers are not totally dependent on handouts if they are expeditiously paid for produce delivered to markets. The Grain Marketing Board has in recent years unwittingly contributed to the challenges prevailing on farms by failing to pay farmers for grain deliveries.

In January, it owed farmers $48,5 million but now it has reduced the debt to $29,2 million. We acknowledge the government’s efforts to capacitate GMB financially for the parastatal to be able to pay farmers. Cde Chinamasa pledged to pay the outstanding sum and for deliveries made last month of about 26,950 tonnes of grain valued at $10,5 million. That is good.

We look forward to the support coming on time. However, without farmers putting it to good use, we will not go anywhere. By this we are saying farmers need to work diligently for their success and that of the economy.