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While the pledge by industry experts to assist farmers with technical expertise to boost crop yields sounds very logical, it must be borne in mind that there is much more to farming than just knowledge and skills.

Any right-thinking person will know that imparting knowledge and skills is one side of the equation and yields cannot be increased simply by addressing one side. To balance the equation, the issue of money, which is at the heart of farming, should be tackled.

There is no way crop yields can increase just because farmers have the knowledge and skills.

They need money to buy the right amounts of seed, the right quantities of fertiliser and the correct quantities of herbicides. In the end, we believe that knowledge and skills, supported by financial resources can easily turn our farmers into highly productive people.

It is wrong to blame the failure by farmers to attain high crop yields on idleness, lack of knowledge and skills. The same farm workers that beneficiaries of land reform have employed are the very same ones who made the white former commercial farmers a force to reckon with in Southern Africa.

The farm workers that our farmers have employed know what needs to be done to achieve high crop yields, they know the amount of seed required per hectare of maize, they know the amount of fertiliser and herbicides that are needed for pre and post crop emergency.

They have the knowledge and skills in abundance although there is nothing wrong in attending refresher courses.

Essentially our crop yields are not being hindered by the lack of knowledge and skills, for we believe, they have them, but by the lack of financial resources. They have been in the game for a long time now and there is nothing new to them.

Their biggest challenge is mobilising financial resources to be able to plant the recommended amount of seed per hectare, with recommended quantity of fertiliser and herbicides for weed management.

They have been unable to do so, not because of lack of knowledge, but because of lack of money. It is common knowledge that to achieve high yields, farmers have to adhere to agronomic advice they get from agricultural extension officers.

The knowledge and skills must be supported by the availability of money, because without finance, our agriculture is doomed. We have witnessed many farmers attaining pathetic crop yields owing to lack of finance. They have been forced to apply, in some very common instances, two to three bags of Compound D when the recommended is five bags and obviously this would translate into a decline in yields and consequently production.

Our farmers have been planting less seed per hectare, applying less amount of fertiliser and less quantity of herbicides because of cost considerations against available financial resources, which in the end impacts negatively on yields and this has nothing to do with knowledge and skills.

For us, there is no debate on knowledge and skills, because we are convinced farmers possess these. They know what needs to be done to improve crop yields, but have been inhibited by lack of money.

So we would not have solved the declining crop yield problems if we focus only on knowledge and skills without addressing the issue of money. Our farmers can have all the knowledge and skills available to them in this world, but without access to financial resources, we can forget about increasing yields.

Let us not forget that we used to produce over 2 million tonnes of maize a couple of years ago with the bulk of the output coming from communal farmers.

These are the same farmers who are now the beneficiaries of land reform and for anyone to blame falling crop yields on lack of knowledge and skills is just unbelievable.

So let us empower our farmers with the money with which to conduct their farming and obviously we will see a transformation in the yield levels.