More on zanupf farming and their bumper harvests of .....

..... lies, lies and more lies...


Food production: another recipe for disaster in the making

Zim Standard

Comment

ONE of the reasons Zimbabwe has failed to meet its domestic
requirements for food has been a combination of poor planning and
unavailability of agricultural inputs. It appears a re-enactment is
inevitable this coming season.

Last week weather experts predicted a good rainy season, but with only
weeks to go before the 2007/2008 farming season, farmers are concerned they
do not have all the resources they need to take advantage of the expected
rains.

Since the advent of the disastrous 2000 farm invasions the story of
the country's agricultural sector has been one of missed opportunities.

What the government says and wants to achieve and what it eventually
accomplishes are two different things. It is as if all its plans are cursed.

The curse is one of failure to plan and what is remarkable is that
this can go on recurring for eight straight years. The government likes to
blame drought and other external factors, but the major cause of the
country's
failure to produce enough food is an inability to ensure everything is in
place before farming operations start.

Farmers complain that seed and other key inputs such as fertilisers
are not readily available, already setting the stage for failure. The
government never learns.

As a result of this perennial bungling, the country could end up
importing food to meet domestic consumption requirements, even though it can
ill-afford the scarce foreign currency.

Measures announced by the central bank last week were informed by the
need to avoid food imports. But the extent to which the measures can
stimulate production without the necessary inputs remains questionable.

There are other factors that have worked successfully against efforts
to boost agricultural production in recent years. Among them is giving land
to people without an interest in farming. The same people without an
interest in farming have resources heaped on them, even though their record
of production would disqualify them from accessing any support intended to
beef up farm output. The problem has been that the people who least deserve
assistance have been the major beneficiaries of the various incentives
availed by the government.

During 1980/1981, a simple but deliberate scheme supported by the
international community ensured that villagers were each given 25kg of maize
seed. The results are well documented. The problem today is there has been a
deliberate shift to support people who declared, upon offer of A2 farms,
that they had the resources to work the land.

The government should have run two parallel schemes. One for communal
and A1 resettled farmers and the other for the A2 settlers. The extent of
food shortages would not have been as acute as it is.

In order to ensure that those with most support from the government
made maximum use of their farms, there should have been insistence on
employing agricultural graduates. Regular visits to farms would have ensured
the farms were under supervision of capable managers.

If the land redistribution programme had been fair and transparent and
all the graduates of agricultural institutions in the country were offered
land or employed as farm managers, Zimbabwe would today be a success story.

After the chaotic land reform exercise tobacco production fell
five-fold to 50 million kg. This year it rose by 22 million kg. At this
growth rate, and given the level of bungling, it could take up to a decade
before production in this sector reaches pre-farm invasion levels.

The fuel facility announced last week is enough for more than one
month. There-in lies the problem with fire-fighting management. There is no
serious attempt to address once and for all the needs of the various
sectors. It is as if someone benefits from the continued crisis management.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Welshpool Farming Forum Press Release/Nov.25, 2005/State of British Farming
    ... Doubling of overall Government expenditure in 8 years, ... support for the production of food, Government is set to waste larger ... whilst production subsidies in Britain of some £2.2bn have ... British Agriculture has been hugely disadvantaged by some £30bn over ...
    (uk.business.agriculture)
  • NAIS and the possible effect on horses
    ... They are including livestock sold directly from small farms to the end ... The government is implementing huge ... They are including animals that are not in the food supply such as pets ...
    (rec.equestrian)
  • Re: Realistic Jericho scripts
    ... Food production flowed from millions of farms. ... food without fuel, supplies and transportation support. ... WHAT government??? ...
    (misc.survivalism)
  • Re: OT Census bureau.
    ... been introduced to identify all food production, domestic, foreign, home ... small family farm, the organic farms and the slow growth movement, so ... along with GM seeds. ... These bills are also adding a new department to the government, ...
    (rec.music.classical.guitar)
  • OT Census bureau.
    ... I learned tonight that the Census bureau is out GPSing all possible ... been introduced to identify all food production, domestic, foreign, home ... small family farm, the organic farms and the slow growth movement, so ... These bills are also adding a new department to the government, ...
    (rec.music.classical.guitar)