INADEQUATE funding is one of the major hindrances to maximum production, with small holder farmers being the most affected as they do not have the requirements to access loans.
Lack of cheaper finance to procure inputs, the prevailing liquidity constraints and the changing rainfall patterns are drawing back crop production.
Efforts continue to be made to produce enough grain to meet annual requirements and increase production of cash crops but expensive capital and erratic rainfall continue to negatively impact on production.
In a development set to boost agriculture the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) last week launched the Zimbabwe Livelihood and Food Security Programme (LFSP).
Under the programme more than 126 000 households are set to benefit from a US$72 million contract scheme to improve the livelihoods and food security for those living in the rural areas by kick starting the rural economy.
Beneficiaries will be drawn from the Manicaland, Midlands and Mashonaland province’s districts namely Mutare, Makoni, Mutasa, Kwekwe, Gokwe South, Shurugwi, Guruve and Mount Darwin.
The programme aims to ensure food and income for small-scale farmers, increase long term profits and deepen farmers’ links to agricultural markets.
In a speech read on his behalf during the launch, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development minister Dr Joseph Made acknowledged that the issue of funds was derailing efforts by resettled farmers to ramp up production.
“Issues affecting the farmers today include that of funds, limited access to markets and climate change,” he said.
“There is need to promote rural finance, contract farming which ensures farmers of a ready market if the prospects of the sector are to improve.
“Small holder farmers have to be adequately supported as they are the major contributors to the grain reserves as communal farmers and small-scale farmers were producing more grain yet they had limited access to equipment and financial support..”
Statistics from the ministry indicate communal and A1 farmers have been the major producers of maize.
Most large-scale farmers prefer to produce cash crops such as tobacco and soya beans.
As far back as 1980 communal farmers have been the major contributors to the grain reserves producing 66 565 tonnes that year and in 1983 when the country experienced a drought recorded a tonnage of 137 234.
After the drought the communal farmers contributed 335 130 tonnes of maize double the previous years.
In 1996 when the country recorded its highest maize yield of 2,6 million tonnes, 1,6million tonnes were produced by communal farmers.
During the 2012/ 2013 cropping season 61percent of the total hectarage of maize was grown by communal farmers while 18 percent was by A1 farmers and six percent by A2 farmers.
For the 2013/2014 cropping season the hectarage covered by communal farmers was 63 percent, 19 percent by A1 farmers and six percent by A2 farmers.
British Ambassador Ms Catriona Laing said supporting small-scale farmers would help improve the agriculture sector.
“Supporting the agriculture sector means Zimbabwe will prosper and if Zimbabwe prospers it is not only good for Zimbabwe but it creates opportunities for British investors,” she said.
Britain and her allies have in the past castigated the Land Reform Programme and through imposing sanctions on the country derailed agricultural activities.
Those against the Land Reform Programme however have tended to compare the resettled farms who have been on the farmers for only 15 years to white farmers who only began to make profits after more than 40 years on the land.
White farmers especially during the early days received massive support from their government which poured money into their farm activities.
Since then The Land bank, now the Agribank, increased loans and there was a three-year suspension on all repayments.
The white farmers were given loans worth US$12 000 per farm per year which is equivalent to US$40 000. The maize control acts of 1931 and 1934 ensured that white farmers were paid substantially more for maize than black farmers.
With the law and funding on their side they quickly became wealthy and an illusion of prosperity was created.
Following the resilience of resettled farmers and the realisation that Government was not going back on its land programme, are programmes such as the LFSP, an acknowledgement by Britain that the land is now with its rightful owners.