TARIRO KAFEMBA, a horticulture farmer in Centenary, Mashonaland Central, grows cabbages on her six-hectare farm.

Her 10 000-head of cabbages were ready for harvest but the series of lockdowns disrupted her plans.

“Due to lockdown restrictions, I did not manage to sell the produce because the market was closed and all boarding schools I used to supply were closed,” laments Kafemba.

“I ended up feeding the rotting cabbages to my cattle.” 

Kafemba, who has been farming for the past four-years, had planted the crops with an approximate investment of US$2 000.

And now she has nothing to show for it.

She expected at least US$5 000.

COVID-19-induced lockdown came at an unfortunate time for many horticulture farmers, as it was the harvest season.

Consequently, in some places, the crop had been abandoned, while in others, the harvest was coming more than a month late, in hand with limited and more expensive labour.

Most activities in cities and towns across Zimbabwe had come to a standstill.

This Monday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa eased the lockdown and overnight curfew imposed in January by allowing businesses to fully re-open after the rate of new infections slowed in the last two weeks.

On January 5, the country slid back into a total shutdown after a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases during the festive season.

Susan Musariri also recounted her predicament: 

“I had just bought about 500 one-day-old chicks before the lockdown that was imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic crippled my poultry investment.

“The lockdown resulted in travel restrictions; hence I could not go to Harare to buy chickenfeed. 

“And most painfully too was that the very few suppliers of feeds in my town were selling at exorbitant prices, and I could not afford to buy.”

Adding to her pains was the reality that while the cost of rearing chickens increased because of the hike in feed, the price of selling them reduced due to market closure and economic difficulties that accompanied the pandemic. 

“Consequently, I lost almost all of my capital,” lamented Musariri.

Once a busy poultry farm in Rusape, Musariri’s project was just a tale of its old glory as all the five fowl runs were virtually empty, with only 10 chickens in one.

Findings from Action Aid into how measures to control COVID-19 are affecting the lives of women smallholder farmers across 14 countries in Africa and Asia show that market closures, travel restrictions and soaring food prices are negatively affecting rural communities and jeopardising the next agriculture season.

“About 83 percent of women farmers reported a loss of livelihoods during the pandemic, with 65 percent saying they are experiencing food shortages,” notes the research published in October 2020.

Lockdowns, curfews, closures of markets, restrictions on border crossings and movement limitation measures, while necessary for public health and safety concerns, had a negative effect on the functioning of the agricultural sector, and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) that make up the country’s supply chain backbone.

The closure of restaurants and hotels, a ready market for ‘higher-end’ food categories such as meat and fresh produce, was also a low blow to farmers.

Presenting its report to journalists from the SADC region on the impact of COVID-19 on women’s customary land rights and livelihoods in Southern Africa, Advancing Rights in Southern Africa (ARISA), said lockdown restrictions had an adverse effect on women’s customary land rights in the region.

 Part of the report reads: “Women constitute 60 percent of small farmers and provide 70 percent of the agricultural workforce in the region, making them the dominant gender that derives livelihoods from such land. 

It is also trite that the dominant land tenure system in the region’s rural areas is customary tenure, and therefore these women depend on customary land for their agricultural activities.

However, the precariousness of their land rights and access regimes, coupled with the low productivity on the farms and the insecure markets that they depend on to sell any excess produce, all worked together to negatively impact their livelihoods and those of their families in the face of COVID-19.”

Other major risks, as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, included price gouging, evident in the doubling of prices of some commodities.

Zimbabwe, as a net importer of food with reduced agricultural production in recent years, remains vulnerable to high international food prices.

The country is spending around US$46 million a month on imports of cereals and crude oil, according to latest central bank figures, following years of successive droughts and reduced production by farmers due to lack of capital.

Despite challenges in the sector, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube projects economic growth to rebound in 2021 from the consecutive two-year slump to record 7,4 percent, driven from the supply side as a result of strong recovery in agriculture, mining, electricity, construction, transport and communication as well as finance and insurance. 

Agriculture is expected to grow by 11,3 percent in 2021.

With the good rains that have been consistent in the past few weeks, coupled with the Pfumbvudza Programme, Zimbabwe is expected to enjoy a decent harvest.

“Had it not been for COVID-19, we would have had a bumper harvest,” said Gogo Mutizwa, a farmer in Goromonzi.

Like other women farmers with similar experience under COVID-19 pandemic, Gogo Mutizwa pleaded with the Government and other relevant stakeholders to come up with special packages for women farmers.

For her, this will not only be a morale booster, it will also empower women to continue contributing their quota in the country’s food security policy.