THE success of the 2016/17 cropping season has got everyone talking.
In churches, preachers are commanding, in beerhalls imbibers are commanding, in schools, school heads are commanding, there are also command babies in hospitals, the list is endless.
The word ‘command’ has become so popular thanks to Command Agriculture during the last cropping season.
With good rains, this programme has been a huge success.
Soon we will witness our grain silos filling to the brim.
The programme saw many farmers using their pieces of land in a manner that has not been seen before since the beginning of the Land Reform Programme.
The success of this programme can also be attributed to the Presidential Input Scheme.
In Zimbabwe we have the land, and plenty of it which is still underutilised.
In communal areas, subsistence farmers were jolted into action upon hearing the Command Agriculture Programme and the prospects of a bumper harvest.
However, this success story is not new to traditional Zimbabwe.
It is a scheme which reminded farmers that we must not depend on donor handouts or non-governemental organisations (NGOs) to give our people their own staple food.
It was like donating rice to the Chinese or Japanese who could not properly utilise their paddy fields, or selling ice to the Eskimos.
The programme is not new to Zimbabwe.
It is only the word ‘Command’ that propelled the success of this farming season.
Farmers were provided with the necessary inputs and machinery.
The uptake was a huge success as farmers jostled to enroll for the scheme.
The programme is modelled along self-sustaining cultural concept called the Zunde raMambo or Isiphala seNkosi that has been practised in most Zimbabwean rural communities for a long time before colonisation.
Under the concept, a chief would identify land that was underutilised in their respective areas.
Villagers were then asked to contribute labour and inputs and the land was communally ploughed.
Grains such as maize, sorghum and rapoko were planted.
After the harvest all the grain would be stored in selected granaries for use during times of droughts while some would be distributed to vulnerable members of the community such as orphans, the elderly and the sick.
At times, the surplus was exchanged for cattle or money.
The money from the sale of the livestock was used for community projects.
Some of the livestock was slaughtered and the meat eaten during traditional ceremonies and other rituals.
Ceremonies such as asking for rain or mutoro needed grain to brew traditional beer.
Food and meat at funerals and traditional chief’s courts also used grain and meat taken from the communal kraal and granaries.
No one went hungry as the community worked together to ensure there was plenty to eat.
This was the spirit of unhu/ubuntu by Zimbabweans that has been extended through the Command Agriculture Programme.
However, with colonialism, the concept slowly died as men migrated to towns or to work in the white-owned commercial farms.
This communal effort lost value as it was also demonised and labelled as a way to enrich a few individuals, especially chiefs and headmen.
A lot of labour was lost in the process as most able bodied people lost confidence in the concept.
The Zunde raMambo/Isiphala seNkosi concept was later revived some years back but it was not very successful due to a number of factors, chief among them drought, infighting and the land resettlement programme that saw most people relocating to new lands.
The programme also failed to some extent due to the dependency on food handouts from Western-sponsored NGOs who were opposed to the agrarian reform.
The organisations created a dependency syndrome among some communities who forgot that they should produce their own food.
This dependency syndrome is why our nationhood is often regarded lowly by our erstwhile colonisers as we have lost our dignity by going to Western countries cap-in-hand, begging for assistance when there are national disasters such as drought.
It is in this spirit that the Command Agricultural Programme should be tailored along the lines of the Zunde raMambo concept.
It should be an agricultural programme that becomes an integral part of a self sustaining development.
It should reflect our traditional values as a country whether there are plenty of rains or droughts.
Grain under this programme should be respected and monitored and should the need arise be distributed to vulnerable communities through traditional structures just like in the Zunde raMambo/Isiphala seNkosi concept.
As we celebrate the success of this programme and plan to extend it to other sectors like mining, livestock and other key areas of our economy, we should not forget that there are vulnerable communities that are still dependent on the donor community.
There is still a huge number of NGOs who have infested Zimbabwe for a long time whose rationale for being in this country is to provide staple food aid.
These should be shamed by the way we will handle and manage and distribute this grain.
The mismanagement of this grain will become an ammunition for them to pursue their regime change agenda.
We must ensure that they cease to corrupt and influence our vulnerable communities through food handouts.
The Zunde raMambo/Isiphala seNkosi had structures which respected the distribution of grain and properly identified the deserving community members.
In turn, Mwari was always opening up the skies for the communities, and this was premised on the cultural respect that people shared.
Based on this respect of our culture and nation we should expect another bumper harvest in the next season.