FARMERS around the country are still not adequately prepared for the 2016/17 agricultural season as funding and seed for small grains is not in place, raising fears of another disastrous season.
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
The delay will most likely affect output and stands as a reminder of government’s failure to bring closure to the land reform exercise which decimated agriculture.
In the past, farmers would use their land as collateral to access funding from banks but the existing 99-year leases given to new farmers have been rejected by banks.
Farmers who spoke to Standardbusiness last week said the situation was dire and urged government to intervene so that they can take advantage of the good rainfall forecast by the country’s Meteorological Department.
Small Grains Producers Association chairman Basil Nyabadza said farmers were ill-prepared for the 2016/2017 agricultural season as small grain seed across the board was not readily available.
“The availability of small grain seed across the board is a challenge due to a number of factors, chief among them being lack of funding, to seed houses and late payments,” said Nyabadza, who is also the Agricultural Rural Development Authority board chairman.
This, he said, had led to very limited availability of small grain seed such as sorghum, groundnuts, sugar beans, cowpeas, roundnuts and tubers such as sweet potato and Irish potato, among others.
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“The small grain seed bank is nearly empty and the situation is not pleasing. However, efforts are being made to import material from the region,” he said.
Nyabadza said investment in small grain production in Zimbabwe was very poor and they needed partners.
He said in the last four years, small grain producers had been facing challenges in the provision of seed. Nyabadza said farmers were battling to have inputs in time and some had not yet been paid for delivery of their produce.
As such, they have been depending on low quality recycled seed, which has affected productivity.
This is despite the fact that there has been a marked shift from maize production to small grains over the years as farmers realised that optimum yields could only be realised from growing crops such as pearl millet and sorghum.
Drought-prone areas, particularly natural regions III, IV and V, are characterised by high temperatures and erratic rains, hence they are suitable for small grain crops.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Wonder Chabikwa echoed similar sentiments, adding that farming resources were hard to access at the moment.
“In terms of mindset, yes farmers are well-prepared. However, preparations in terms of resources are our major challenge at the moment. Under normal circumstances by this time farmers would have secured loans to buy inputs,” Chabikwa said.
He said farmers used to get loans at reasonable interest rates but such loans were no longer available.
“This will limit our capacity utilisation as farmers and that is our fear at the moment. To some farmers, the government-led command agriculture has come as a relief but for those who are not in the programme, it’s a struggle,” he said.
Government recently availed a $500 million command agricultural programme under which it aims to produce two million tonnes of maize from 400 000 hectares of land in a move meant to ensure food security and to reduce dependency on imports.
But critics have said the programme was bound to fail due to corruption like other previous interventions such as the farm mechanisation and the central bank-sponsored Operation Maguta /Inala — which all failed to deliver.
As a way to circumvent funding challenges, Chabikwa encouraged farmers to consider forming groups and approach financial institutions for funding. He said financial institutions were finding it easy to deal with groups and not individuals.
He said in as much as inputs like fertilisers and maize seed were available, they felt they were still expensive compared to prices in other countries in the region.
This, he said, was killing their competitiveness as farmers.
Chabikwa said given enough resources and conducive weather conditions, they would reach the national target of two million metric tonnes.
Maxim Hill Farmers secretary Themba Round said government used to supply them with fertilisers but this time around they had not received any.
“We haven’t gotten anything from the government as we normally do. As such, we appeal to the government to intervene,” Round said.
However, Women Farmers’ Association national chairperson Judith Maphosa said farmers were geared for this coming season and hoped for a bumper harvest.
“We are geared for this farming season and we are hoping for a bumper harvest owing to good rainfall, as forecasted by the Meteorological Department. We have inputs, though not adequate and we are appealing to the government to support if it can. We are also appealing to those farmers with enough water to join command agriculture and cut on horticulture,” Maphosa said.
She said they were going to grow small grain crops like millet and sorghum as these crops were drought resistant. Seed and fertiliser producers have, however, said they are well-stocked for this agricultural season and challenged farmers to engage them.
“We are overly stocked for this season. We have all varieties of seed ranging from maize, millet, soya beans, sunflower, carrots among others and our seeds are hybrid,” prime Seedco product development manager, Qakathekile Khumalo said.
Khumalo said, as a way of catering for all farmers, they would soon be launching small hybrid packs for them. Chemplex Corporation chief executive officer, Misheck Kachere said fertiliser manufacturers were well-prepared for the season but the challenge was late payment for imported raw materials.
“Our production plants are ready and we have done all the requirements. As industry, we have 100 000 tonnes of fertiliser which we can only distribute once we have been paid,” Kachere said.
He said they had raw materials which were stuck at the country’s borders due to delays in payments. “We are talking to the government to facilitate the movement,” he said.
Kachere said their products were affordable and encouraged farmers to engage them.
A 50kg bag of compound D, according to the fertiliser industry, costs about $27, 50.The local fertiliser industry is capable of producing 900 000 tonnes of compound and ammonium nitrate per annum, against demand of 330 000 tonnes.
