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Obert Chifamba Agri-Insight
Another week, another set of strong statements from Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa. Often in the news headlines every time he announces the national budget or addresses other monetary issues relating to the performance of the national economy, this time the Minister chose to dwellon a subject everybody agrees is the life force of our economy – agriculture.

He touched on a number of important issues that make the agriculture sector tick. Minister Chinamasa talked about the role industry and the banking sector can play in the successful rolling out of agricultural programmes such as the current Command Agriculture, which incidentally has registered colossal success in its debut season of implementation.

It is refreshing to note that in the just ended 2016 /17 farming season private sector invested $264 million towards supporting Command Agriculture and of course special mention goes to Sakunda Holdings and the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe to single out just a few.

For the 2017 /18 farming season, Government intends to recruit 1, 8 million households for Command Agriculture, which is an extra million compared to the 800 000 households that were involved in the 2016 /17 season.

This means there will be need for more support in terms of financing, input provision, technical extension and a host of other logistical services.

That more irrigation infrastructure will be needed is not a secret to anyone. We never know maybe next season there will not be lavish rains compared to those that fell in the 2016 /17 season thanks to the La Nina weather phenomenon so some or all farmers in the programme may need to irrigate their crops.

There are 10 000 water bodies across the country whose water can be harnessed for irrigation purposes, Minister Chinamasa observed.

This simple reality literally informs every player in both the private and public sectors that the country needs to invest in irrigation and more mechanisation of the agricultural sector.

The Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe has come in very handy in the rehabilitation of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB’s) dilapidated silos, which could have created monumental storage headaches as we speak.

Still on GMB, it is also exciting to learn that the past three seasons were better in terms of payment of farmers for grain delivered.

Timeous paying of farmers is one thing that motivates production especially as many of the farmers are relatively new in the commercial side of agriculture and need to see the rewards that come with treating farming as a business.

A reliable payment system is always an attraction to farmers since they are seasonal earners whose incomes come at a time when they would have accrued lots of debts that need to be upset as soon as produce is sent to the market.

They will also need to quickly secure inputs for forthcoming seasons so all markets – GMB, ginners, millers and many others should always prepare for the marketing season and not delay payment of farmers.

In this regard, industry should also help by ensuring a timeous distribution of affordable inputs across the country to make farmers’ lives easier. Research on more drought tolerant crop varieties should also be supported by both private and public sector to enhance chances of salvaging decent yields even when seasons are bad.

In most cases, it is the high cost of production that is deterring many farmers from producing crops on large scale. This is an issue that has its roots firmly embedded in the failure by industry and other players to supply inputs at affordable prices and from easily accessible distribution points.

The cost of production has to be sustainable since production is demand driven.

This brings us to the issue of markets. Industry should provide a vibrant market for agricultural produce to incite productivity on the part of farmers.

They need to know that they can produce for a market that absorbs their produce and pays them too. I reckon industry seems to forget that in an agro-based economy there is no industrial activity to talk about if there is no agricultural productivity so industry must be involved voluntarily in the production process.

Agriculture is central to Zimbabwe’s inclusive development aspirations especially given its role as a source of livelihood for more than 75 percent of the population while it is also a big employer from the farm to the industries that consume most of the produce.

Once there is increased productivity, there will also be a corresponding increase in exports of agro-based products that fetch more value if sold after value addition.

It is time all sectors of the economy – large and small – treat agriculture as a business whose entire value chain should be clearly understood and supported by both private and public sectors.

It is sad that sometimes this value chain is forgotten and parts of it are left to break away, which means there will be a disruption of the entire process and the effects will be felt by all players that are part of the chain.

Input suppliers for seed, fertilisers and chemicals must come to the party while infrastructure developers and suppliers must provide mechanisation and irrigation equipment so that consumers of agricultural products such as ginners, spinners, millers and oil expressers can get raw materials that allow them to activate the manufacturing sector to start working.

Anyway, after all has been said and done, the farmer must be given good prices to maintain the value chain alive and active.

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