HomeOld_PostsCommand Agriculture: Part Two .....sustainability through technical support for farmers

Command Agriculture: Part Two …..sustainability through technical support for farmers

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ON June 7 2017 I had the privilege of being one of only two delegates representing universities at the Command Agriculture Review Workshop held at the Harare International Conference Centre.
I came from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) while the second delegate, Professor Stanley Makuza, an expert in animal sciences and technology, came from Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT).
We had agreed that Professor Makuza would speak on the potential for university technical support for the Command Livestock Programme while I would concentrate on technical support for command agriculture in general.
Unfortunately we were not afforded the opportunity to make oral presentations as had been indicated in the early stages of the workshop planning.
That was not surprising given the minimal role universities seem to have played so far in the implementation of the programme. However, we were allowed to hand in our prepared notes.
Here I will share with readers what I consider to be compelling reasons seeking to involve institutions of higher learning in the provision of technical training and advisory support services to farmers to ensure sustainable agricultural productivity under command agriculture.
When the Command Agriculture Programme was first promulgated, many in the agriculture departments of various universities were very excited, sensing opportunities to finally engage in the real work of practical production through working closely with farmers and other relevant stakeholders, providing technical and advisory support. This did not happen.
After comparing notes with other agricultural scientists at various universities, I realised that there was no formal engagement with universities as key technical stakeholders although a few individuals were involved in some of the committees.
The Command Centre had sent a general letter inviting stakeholders, including universities, to participate.
Indeed, some institutions had availed the inputs and had excellent crops now being harvested.
Other than that, the universities’ ‘Ivory Towers’ residents were hardly ruffled by the arrival of Command Agriculture. Strangely enough, some dismissed it as a political gimmick!
The Command Agriculture brochure detailed many committees that attended to various key issues pertinent to the success of the Command Agriculture Programme all the way down to monitoring and evaluation.
What I did not find was the aspect of providing training and dedicated technical advisory support services to farmers.
The natural assumption was that AGRITEX would take care of this aspect. For some of us, it was in provision of technical support services that we felt universities could play an active role.
Believing that technical support was the niche where universities and colleges of agriculture could complement AGRITEX, I visited Ngungunyana Building and had a long discussion with the AGRITEX principal director.
We agreed that AGRITEX was assumed to be fully seized with the provision of training and technical service provision to farmers.
We also accepted that AGRITEX was constrained by limited resources and that many of their officers also needed re-sharpening and re-tooling to bring them up to date with new and emerging agricultural technologies through workshops and refresher courses.
I suggested to the AGRITEX principal director that universities had requisite manpower with skills and competencies to not only re-tool AGRITEX agricultural knowledge and technology-wise, but also to participate in the mammoth task of farmer training and technical support provision to ensure optimum production.
Was there a way in which Command Agriculture could mobilise resources for such an essential exercise as farmer training and technical support provision?
The AGRITEX director advised that I share my ideas with the Command Agriculture chairperson.
The reader may be wondering why I was so keen on the provision of technical support to farmers.
As a practising farmer, I was and continue to be acutely aware of the challenges of accessing technical support services.
As a professor of agriculture I am even more conscious of the knowledge gaps that I experience despite my training and access to information sources.
The situation could be worse for some of my farmer colleagues! I seek technical advice on numerous occasions for my farming operations. It is not always readily available though.
I am aware of the skills and knowledge deficiencies of current farm employees, many of whom are relatives recently drafted from communal areas by the large cadre of new and resettled farmers.
These farmer relatives need enormous technical training and support if the farms are to increase their productivity levels and become viable.
The so-called experienced workers from former white farms are hardly visible and active on the farms. Many have passed on while others have retired or acquired their own plots.
The rest cannot find employers willing to pay them ‘good’ wages and so are surviving on gold panning or ‘piece’ jobs.
High rates of pilferage are ascribed to former white farmer employees left behind in the compounds.
Therefore the new farmers need a large measure of hand-holding through technical support services.
Still keen to find a way in which agricultural experts in institutions of higher learning could contribute to the success of the Command Agriculture Programme, I sought and was readily granted audience with the chairman of the Command Agriculture Steering Committee in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Prince Mupazviriho.
We had a very fruitful discussion in which the chairman apprised me of all the various committees put in place to ensure the meticulous execution of the programme.
I was impressed but I also noticed there was no committee dedicated to provision of training and technical support services to farmers. He also affirmed that AGRITEX was expected to provide technical services to farmers.
I pointed out to the chairman the need to tap into the reservoirs of knowledge, skills and experience of university agriculture faculties where Government has already invested heavily in infrastructure, equipment and agriculturally-skilled manpower.
The aim will be to engage and deploy the professors, lecturers and students in supporting farmers with technical skills training and knowledge under Command Agriculture.
Building synergies anchored on skills training by local learning institutions helping farming communities is a good recipe for ensuring sustainability of agricultural production.
I must hasten to point out that an expanded technical support programme for Command Agriculture would incur financial support costs that were not catered for in the first phase targeting maize.
Be that as it may, all necessary steps need to be taken to ensure that farmers produce maximally so that financiers can recover their investment and continue to provide funding.
If farmers fail to produce on account of poor technical support, that could be fatal to the programme.
So, the wise thing is to use part of the availed resources to fund technical support interventions to ensure farmers are capacitated not only in terms of seed, fertiliser, chemicals and diesel but also skills and knowledge to derive the highest possible yields.
Provision of technical support is highly desirable and a major element of sustainability of this programme.
We are proposing that universities and colleges of agriculture, staff and students be mobilised to complement AGRITEX in the provision of farmer training and technical advisory service provision.
In the just-ended season, the incessant rains literally covered up for any technical gaps that might have reduced yields but we must prepare for other seasons where farmer ingenuity and technical knowledge will carry the day.
After all, our farmers are still technically young; they need tutelage.
The Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Dr Joseph Made, recently highlighted the need for proper training of farmers for the Command Livestock Programme. That formula must apply to all command programmes.
And the question is: Who will train the farmers?
AGRITEX is already in the trenches but I think universities and colleges of agriculture must join the fray to technically sharpen our farmers.
No troops should be sent against ‘Banyamulenge’ without being properly trained and equipped with requisite skills. Otherwise they will be wiped out!
The farmers are Zimbabwe’s frontline troops. Let us give them all the support they need to maximise yields.
‘KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!’
Let us empower the Zimbabwean farmers!
And that is why we are calling on Government to structure Command Agriculture to have a strong component of farmer training and technical support.
Let all institutions with capacity to provide technical support to farmers be mobilised to help.
The struggle for food and nutrition security continues!

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