Bumper harvests and mother of all harvests are just more zanupf lies

Farmers fail to access inputs

Zim Independent

Augustine Mukaro

THE 2007/8 agricultural season publicised as "the mother of all
agricultural seasons" could turn out to be the worst season ever as farmers
fail to access the necessary inputs on time for planting, experts have
warned.

Reports coming from most provinces show that farmers have been forced
to plant an estimated 40% of the area normally put under crops because of
the shortages of seed, fertiliser, draught power and equipment, threatening
prospects of a bumper harvest next year before it even starts.

Despite the best spell of wet weather since the cyclones of 2000, the
mechanisation programme equipment is still stored at a number of government
premises while farmers fail to till the land. In Chiredzi hundreds of
ploughs lie idle in the rural council yard.

Fertiliser and seed companies said they had no capacity to satisfy the
national requirement due to lack of foreign currency and unrealistic prices.
There is also a critical shortage of pesticides and other chemicals.

Zanu PF central committee report presented at the party's
extraordinary congress last week exposed vast differences between what the
farmers require to produce enough food and the resources made available by
government.

The report said local seed houses made available around 28 450 tonnes
of seed. This is enough to cover 1,2 million hectares compared to the
targeted 3,2 million hectares of land. The quantity account for only a third
of what the country requires.

Government said it was going to address the shortfall through
importing the seed from Zambia, Botswana and South Africa.

To date a mere 794 tonnes of seed have been imported from Zambia, the
report said.

The report noted that serious shortages were in the fertiliser section
with local producers not in a position to fully exploit their capacity due
to unviable prices, shortages of phosphates, foreign currency, coal and
power.

"The fertiliser industry are prepared to produce 53 950 tonnes of
Compound D between October and December and 46 714 tonnes of Ammonium
Nitrate (AN) between September and February 2008 subject to immediate
availability of foreign currency amounting to US$12 million for spare parts
and raw materials, an improvement in electricity supplies and a reviewed
price," the central committee report said.

The country requires 720 000 tonnes of compound and 774 000 of AN each
season.

The report said government would bridge the gap through imports of
fertiliser from China and South Africa.

Government has issued permits to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to
engage Insthona for the immediate importation of 50 000 tonnes of urea and
41 000 tonnes of compound D.

Insthona is the company which brought substandard fertiliser into the
country resulting in the firing of the then Agriculture secretary Simon
Pazvakavambwa.

Last year Intshona supplied about 800 tonnes of the substandard
fertiliser, prejudicing the country of up to US$300 000.

The report said the supply of fuel, coal and electricity remained
critical.

However, farming experts said the situation on the ground throws into
disarray all government prospects of a quick fix to the free falling
agricultural sector and the economy at large.

Experts say government efforts to boost production would not yield any
positive results under the current legislative set-up and the continued farm
invasions, which have created uncertainty for investors to embark on
business expansions.

"The situation continues to be untenable unless farm-grabbing and
farming implements seizures by top government officials at the expense of
ordinary farmers, power blackouts and unavailability of inputs are
addressed," one expert said. "Nationally agricultural output has predictably
declined further relegating government efforts to a national joke."

He said the major constraint to increased productivity was the
uncertainty of tenure in the agricultural sector where farmers are evicted
on a daily basis.

Continued acquisition notices, disruptions, acts of violence on farms
and lack of land-based collateral were some of the problems farmers face."

The chaotic land reform programme, which from inception has been
condemned by international donors as unworkable and a recipe for disaster,
has turned out to be just that. Over the past six seasons production in all
facets of agriculture has plummeted, dragging the economy down with it.

Farmers have estimated production to have fallen by 70%, resulting in
the country surviving on food handouts and grain imports to bridge food
deficits.

Experts said farming activities require proper financing, planning and
expertise which have been conspicuously absent since the inception of the
land reform programme seven years ago.

Analysts attributed the continued slide of production to inherent
policy contradictions from government officials as causing confusion on the
ground. The confusion has sparked serious row between the Ministry of Lands
and provincial leadership.

The ministry continues to issue offer letters while the provinces
sought to boost production with the remaining white farmers not being
disrupted. From the inception of the fast-track land reform white commercial
farmers clinging on to the land were considered to be the primary obstacles
to the success of the exercise.


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