Zimpapers Logo

IT took a great deal of personal sacrifice for Mr Tendai Mpofu (32), a farmer, to raise $4 500 to fund the installation of a drip irrigation system on his plot.
He believes that under normal circumstances, he would have received financial support from the Government or the private sector to invest in his horticulture business. That did not happen as public and private sector farm support virtually dried up over the past four years.

Mr Mpofu, who grows cabbages and onions under irrigation on an acre, hopes the next five years would be different after a difficult period for him and fellow farmers since 2008.

“We have one party in government this time and there should be stability,” he said.

“It is good that the party in government has a clear policy on agriculture. The past few years were difficult for the farmer. For me, it was a big challenge starting up because I had to save enough to invest on the drip irrigation I have, put the crop down and irrigate it. There are many in my position who are failing to produce because of lack of resources.

I also have the challenge that as a young person, I don’t have land myself. This is my father’s land, yet I have the zeal and potential. If I get someone with surplus land, I will try to negotiate so I can work their land but the challenge is the costs involved can be too high for an emerging farmer like me.

So I expect the new government to support us, young new farmers with loans as well as giving us the land.”
Mr Mpofu’s father owns a two-acre holding in Bulawayo which has a dwelling on a section measuring about half an acre. A few months ago, he asked his father, a retired journalist, for the remaining acre and half.

He agreed, so Mpofu junior set up the irrigation system on an acre for 4 500 heads of cabbages and 30 000 king onions. Mr Mpofu Jnr also has around half an acre under about 500 more heads of cabbages, choumolier and a nursery for onions.

Many governments across the globe maintain protectionist policies on their agriculture industries through a number of ways, among them providing subsidies to farmers and controlling food and other agro-imports. The US, for instance provided $18 billion in subsidies to its cotton farmers between 1999 and July 2005.

Given that the market value of this production during that period was $23,39 billion, the subsidisation rate translates to 86 percent. In other words for every dollar received by a cotton farmer from his sales, he received an additional 86 cents in subsidies. Europe subsidises its farmers as well.

Government inputs in Malawi during the late President, Bingu wa Mutharika’s reign helped that country to produce more than enough food for domestic requirements with surplus being exported.

But from 2008, the local agriculture sector was deprived of public and private sector support, creating viability constraints for the likes of Mr Mpofu.

“If the Government resumes its support to farmers,” he said, “production will increase and food imports reduced. That will be good for farmers and the country.”

Zanu-PF, in its winning election manifesto, committed itself to re-introducing farm support.
“Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector has suffered from inadequate financing, poor infrastructure, unaffordable inputs and low levels of capitalisation, among other factors,” says the manifesto.

“Under Zanu-PF’s policy intervention, indigenisation assets will be unlocked to capacitate Agribank with a $2 billion endowment to enable it to mobilise resources amounting to $8 billion for the agriculture sector. Adequate financing of agriculture will benefit millions of people through higher incomes, food security and the generation of employment.

Agricultural financing will also stimulate economic growth through the sector’s strong backward and forward linkages with other critical sectors of the economy including the manufacturing and financial sectors.”

President Mugabe reiterated that pledge when officially opening the First Session of the Eighth Parliament on Tuesday. He said the Government would empower farmers through the provision of inputs and marketing incentives.

“We must employ strategies that avert our country from developing an over reliance on food imports and handouts from donors,” he said.

“Government would hasten the operationalisation of the Commodity Exchange of Zimbabwe, which is intended to serve as a market where farmers can market and fetch fair prices for their produce.”

This is some of the support that Mr Stewart Matare, a commercial farmer in Nyamandlovu is expecting from the new Zanu-PF government. He said farmers need more assistance in acquisition of inputs such as seed, fertiliser, chemicals as well as machinery.

He however, urged the Government to put in place measures to ensure that the public support is not abused.
“White farmers were subsidised through electricity supply, fertiliser and so on,” said Mr Matare.

“When we were given this land by President Mugabe, some of us benefited from Reserve Bank input and mechanisation schemes. We look forward to that resuming. But there is a worrying issue about Zesa prepaid meters.

Installing a prepaid meter at a farm is actually removing what can pass for a subsidy to the farmer because he uses electricity to irrigate and pays later.

With a prepaid meter, you pay as you go, which is not feasible for a commercial farmer whose income is derived from selling his produce. I don’t know what can be done about prepaid meters on a farm.”

 

Mr Matare, better known as Cde Sweet Sweet, implored the Government to restore the Grain Marketing Board’s capacity to pay for grain delivered to it. He delivered 170 tonnes of wheat in 2007 but has not been paid yet.

Thousands of other farmers are in his position. At some point in 2011, the GMB owed wheat and maize farmers $40 million.
“Not many banks are funding agriculture in a sustainable way,” he said.

“It is here and there, but agriculture is hopeful that it gets the attention it deserves.”

The Agricultural Marketing Authority recently issued bills to the tune of $35 million through CBZ to support soya bean production. Soya is a food and cash crop which can be processed into food for humans and animals.

National Soya Bean Promotion Taskforce chairman, Professor Sheunesu Mpepereki said without government support, the agriculture sector cannot be viable. He said the Government should strengthen regulatory mechanisms relating to contract soya production to shield farmers from predatory contractors.

“We have seen farmers getting into contracts in which companies give inadequate inputs but indicating tonnages that cannot be realised,” he said.

“There is also the issue of advisory support. There are no requisite skills among many of our farmers to produce the crop at tonnages that enable them to make a profit. Another point to make is the need for the Government to spearhead crop diversification from tobacco.

Why? Because tobacco is a ‘make-hay-while-the-sun-shines’ crop whose production and marketing will soon be banned. It is a crop on its way out, so we must look at alternative cash crops like soya.”

This year, farmers harvested 150 000 tonnes of soya-beans, against a national target of 250 000 tonnes. While the output is still far les than demand, it is more than double the 70 000 tonnes harvested last year.

Prof Mpepereki said it was therefore important for soya-beans farmers to be assisted financially.

“The tragedy is that banks are foreign-owned and have joined the war against the people for regime change. To counter that, we need a law for banks to put aside a prescribed percentage of their loan portfolio specifically for agriculture. Only legislated support can take us forward. However, let me also highlight that loans on their own cannot take us far without farmer training and that of extension workers.

Research has shown that where there has been investment in training, production and productivity has increased. It might be good as well to make it mandatory that, before one gets a loan from a bank, he or she must produce a certificate showing that the borrower has the requisite training to make the loan worthwhile,” said Prof Mpepereki.

The existence of viable markets and easier access to them by farmers, said Prof Mpepereki, is just as critical. He encouraged the

Government to work with farmers and farmer organisations to establish markets where they don’t exist and strengthen existing ones as a strategy to facilitate producers getting fair prices. Prof Mpepereki said proposed re-introduction of an agricultural commodity exchange announced by President Mugabe in Parliament on Tuesday, will address the issue of prices.

Lieutenant Colonel Zitterson Gideon Sabeka, chairman of the Chipinge Macadamia Nut Growers’ Association said members of his organisation expect government support to boost production of a lucrative nut still relatively unknown locally but has a ready market in South Africa, Australia, China and other countries.

“The tree is like a human being,” he said of the crop that does well only in high rainfall agro-ecological regions one and two.

“You treat it well; it behaves well and gives you a good harvest; you mistreat it, it doesn’t behave and does not give you a harvest. It is a sensitive crop which needs money and skills to look after. Banks are not giving anything, so government is our hope.”