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Elita Chikwati Agriculture Focus
Zimbabwean farmers have over the years, since the agrarian revolution began, gained confidence to move from maize production into other cash crops such as tobacco and wheat.

They argue that while they are willing to grow maize for Zimbabwe’s food security, they also expect to get an income through tobacco and in some cases wheat production, which appears to be more lucrative. The farmers bemoaned the current cash shortage.

They argued that in the past, after producing tobacco, they did not have to spend sleepless nights worrying about a market. All they did was deliver their crop to the auction floors where they got their money on the same day of sale.

They used to get cash then and this made producing tobacco very attractive. It is unfortunate that at the time the country was also spending a lot of foreign currency importing food. Farmers’ unions complained about this, accusing the State of sponsoring farmers from other countries such as Zambia and South Africa through food imports.

They argued the same money could have been used to fund local farmers and increase yields. Now that Government has increased farmer support through various programmes, farmers are motivated to grow more crops of their choice.

Government has always supported farmers through the Presidential Inputs Scheme, where farmers receive maize or cotton or small-grains seed, fertilisers and chemicals, a package that is meant to ensure household food security.

This programme will now include soyabean and pulses such as sugar beans, cowpeas, groundnuts, roundnuts among others. Last year, Government also came up with Command Agriculture to increase maize production and do away with food imports.Farmers received inputs in various forms; seed, fertilisers, tillage services and herbicides and this has been a huge success.

The programme has since been extended to include wheat, soyabean and soon livestock, fisheries and wildlife production. This means that there is no excuse for farmers not to produce as the support is being channelled to different crops and sectors.Markets have always been a headache for farmers and this also affected the choices of crops they grow.

To solve this problem, Government came up with support prices for strategic crops and is buying the crops through the Grain Marketing Board, which is offering prices that are higher than those offered in the region or by private buyers.

Government has come up with support prices for maize and soyabean to motivate farmers to grow more. Government is offering $390 and $500 per tonne for maize and wheat respectively and recently the soya- bean producer price was put at $610 per tonne.

A number of stakeholders in the industry have called on Government to reduce the maize producer price from $390 per tonne, which is being paid by the GMB. Players in the agriculture sector, especially grain millers, felt the price of $390 per tonne was not viable and lobbied Government to reduce the price and peg it at the import parity price.

But, according to Government, the price is meant to stimulate production. When coming up with a producer price, Government considers the cost of production and puts a mark-up of at least 20 percent so that farmers will are able to break even and go back to the farms.

Other African countries heavily subsidise their farmers to produce crops and so it will not be fair to compare the producer prices of such countries with Zimbabwe, where inputs costs are higher. The Chinese government buys and stockpiles domestic cotton when prices fall below a set level, a policy designed to support the textile industry after the 2008 financial crisis swallowed export demand.

On the other hand, the United States heavily subsidises its cotton farmers to keep them in business. Although these policies have had a negative impact on farmers, mostly from the developing nations, they are meant to motivate the farmers to continue producing cotton.

Farmers should be supported until they are self-sustaining. Apart from the land reform programme, Government came in full force to ensure farmers produce. Soon after the land reform, farmers received inputs that included seed, fertilisers, fuel and machinery.

Farmers require such support to motivate them to produce and most countries help their farmers through subsidies. We should be a nation that feeds itself. Government is also assisting farmers by boosting irrigation facilities. Zimbabwe has more than 10 000 water bodies that can be fully utilised for irrigation.

Government has also come up with different programmes to boost irrigation to reduce the impact of climate change. To enhance the water aspect, the ministries of Agriculture and Environment are preparing proposals that will enable the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to consider the development of 200 hectares of irrigation per district.

Success of agriculture is at the moment premised on good rainfall. The development of the 200 hectares for irrigation per district under the Public Sector Investment Programme is part of Government’s efforts to ensure food security.

It is, however, important to now put stringent measures to ensure beneficiaries of Government support do not abuse State resources. Those who benefit should provide for the nation as agreed. It is disappointing to have a situation like is happening in the cotton sector, where farmers who benefited from the Presidential Inputs Scheme are now side marketing the crop, with others exporting to neighbouring countries such as Mozambique.

These farmers received free seed, fertilisers and chemicals and instead of showing appreciation by selling to the funder, they side-market the crop, thus undermining efforts to revive the cotton industry.

All crops are being grown now on the basis of a total national roll-out programme. This means if there is a project doing well in the agricultural sector, similar projects should be rolled out throughout the country. If sweet potatoes do well, the element making it to do well should be extended to other crops.

The success in wheat or maize must be replicated in other crops. If the success of agriculture is due to better rainfall, that means elements such as irrigation should be rolled out to all crops. The authorities will not only concentrate on maize, but cover other crops such as fruits, livestock and wildlife farming.