Financial Gazette (Harare)
Njabulo Ncube
11 October 2007
Harare — THOUSANDS of farmers got a shot in the arm this week after the government moved in for the second time in four months to address the critical shortage of farm equipment, which was weighing down its agrarian reforms.
Under the programme, launched on Monday, small-scale farmers received 50 000 animal-drawn ploughs, 70 000 animal-drawn harrows, 70 000 knap-sack sprayers, 45 000 scotch carts, 20 000 animal drawn cultivators and 1 000 animal-drawn planters.
Farmers under the commercial A2 farm model will share a total of 1 200 tractors, 50 combine harvesters, 800 ploughs, 800 disc harrows, 300 planters, 200 boom sprayers, 200 fertilizer spreaders and 200 hay balers.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono said eight further phases of the programme would be launched until 2010.
The programme, Gono said, is meant to end Zimbabweans' penchant for talking without action.
"For a long time, there has been a void of practical and sensible interventions, and instead, what we have seen are eloquent problem descriptions, excellent excuses for doing nothing, and very limited proffering of workable solutions," he said. "Where solutions have been proffered, no implementation took place," added the RBZ boss.
President Robert Mugabe, who was the special guest of honour, said the programme would end what he said was Zimbabwe's position as the "laughing stock" of the region.
"Without doubt, the equipment and implements I have just enumerated will further increase the capacity of our farmers in a way that should realistically move us closer to government's vision of a Zimbabwe that is more than self-sufficient in food security," President Mugabe said.
But critics fear the phenomenon of the "cell phone farmer", the endless chaos on the farms and worsening power shortages could torpedo government's grand plans.
The availing of farm equipment has been undertaken against the backcloth of declining agricultural production in the past seven years, which government critics attributed to the fast-track land reform exercise.
But political analysts and agricultural experts who spoke to The Financial Gazette this week said while President Mugabe's passionate plea to the new farmers to up production was important in light of the serious food shortages, continuing farm invasions - which have worsened over the past two weeks - and the entry of part-timers into the sector, would wreck any chances of a real revival.
President Mugabe, aware of criticism that the programme is an extension of his patronage system ahead of polls next year, said even his opponents stood to benefit: "Whether you are ZANU PF or MDC, tose tinodya (we all eat) sadza."
Renson Gasela, opposition Movement for Democratic Change shadow minister for agriculture, who attended the launch, said the mechanisation programme, if run properly, would raise production. But he warned that the exercise could be dealt a body blow by absentee landlords and continuing invasions.
"As long as we allow invasions and give implements to cell phone farmers, we are in trouble; production will not increase significantly," he said.
Eldred Masunungure, professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe, said while a political dimension could not be ruled out with elections on the horizon, there was urgent need to retool
farms, many of which were stripped of equipment by both white farmers and invaders at the height of the land seizures.
"It is laudable that President Mugabe is seen to be addressing the de-mechanisation on the farms, but this is only but one dimension of solving the multifaceted problems bedeviling the sector," he said.
"The country needs to address the chaos that we read about every day playing out on the farms. As long as we have disruptions on the properties, his plan to increase production by supplying implements could come to nought."
Experts said Zimbabwe's ability to secure enough power to irrigate crops, in the event of poor rainfall, would determine the season's success.
Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo earlier this year said the winter wheat crop had been written off after power cuts disrupted irrigation of the winter crop.
Last week, Mozambique announced it was cutting power supplies to Zimbabwe because of an unpaid debt.
Gono noted this concern when he said key to farm recovery would be the
guaranteed supply of inputs such as seed, fertiliser, fuel and chemicals, whose provision he pledged to help improve.
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