By Professor Sheunesu Mpepereki

ZIM-ASSET is a call to arms.
Agriculture should be priority number one as we look at various sectors requiring urgent action.
In 2008, many rural constituencies voted for an untested opposition party fronted by misguided sellouts that claimed to have overseas friends who could provide people with food.
The food weapon was deployed and did considerable damage to ZANU PF.
Tsvangirai’s promise that “muchagara muupfu, makumbo akatsika mushuga, muchituwhina mumafuta,” while sounding far-fetched still enticed many hungry villagers to vote for the opposition.
This happened in rural constituencies otherwise considered safe due to their liberation war record.
Faced with economic sanctions and drought-induced food shortages, rural communities must have felt that their food security was under threat and erroneously believed the MDC could rescue them.
The enemy was using hunger as a regime change weapon.
Sanctions closed factories throwing thousands out of work, degraded Zimbabwe’s capacity to grow food for its own people and hence created that which is fatal to all living things – hunger.
It is against this background of hunger as a threat to national security that we argue for agriculture to be given top priority in the implementation of Zim-ASSET by any and all government ministries and stakeholders.
Zimbabwe has the capacity to produce surplus food that can be exported to bring in foreign currency.
The soils, climate and human skills are abundantly available and major dams have capacity to augment agricultural production through irrigation.
But unfortunately we have been cowed into fear and we doubt our capacity to feed ourseleves.
Let us briefly review the elements that need to be addressed under Zim-ASSET to bring back self-sufficiency in food production.
First we need political will at all levels from Government, the private sector down to the technocrats and the ordinary people.
We need to be united behind Zim-ASSET.
Policy pronouncements need to be matched with action on the ground. This starts with government committing funds to agriculture and creating an environment conducive to private sector and farmer investments in food crop production.
The popularity of tobacco speaks volumes about the limited support for food crops.
This commitment must cascade to the technocrats and to the farmers. It means government officials must walk the talk.
We need a shared vision of the challenges and the strategies that need to be used to address the problem.
It cannot be business as usual.
Cereals including maize, wheat and small grains constitute the bulk of our calories (energy) with legumes such as soyabean, groundnuts, cowpeas and dry beans as protein and oil sources and sold for cash. Maize production has declined on the back of poor producer prices; drought and climate change are secondary factors.
The lure of the US dollar for tobacco farmers has in cases led to total abandonment of maize production.
Under Zim-ASSET these issues must be addressed.
The huge amounts of foreign currency currently being spent by Government and the private sector to import maize should be used to support local production.
This would stimulate the local economy, create employment, produce industrial raw materials.
The main stimulus for local farmers is attractive producer prices and timely payment by Grain Marketing Board (GMB) for delivered crops. There is little doubt that many farmers and private organisations would invest in cereal production if producer prices were reasonable.
Such strategies should be considered under the Zim-ASSET.
Government’s concern to keep food prices affordable especially for low income urban families is understandable.
However, the political cost of trying to provide cheap food to urbanites at the expense of viable producer prices for farmers can destabilise food production thereby threatening national security and the sovereignty of our country.
The second element is the promotion of drought tolerant small grains like sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet in those areas with lower rainfall.
This must go together with appropriate technology for de-hulling and milling into flour to reduce labor associated with processing.
The technology is readily available; what is required is a vigorous programme of promotion and technology demonstration in the appropriate agro-ecological regions.
Thus we can eliminate the perennial hunger and malnutrition endemic in the drier parts of the country.
The third element is water harvesting and irrigation.
While more research may be required, several technologies already exist that can be repackaged and promoted at little cost.
In the immediate, existing irrigation infrastructure should be revamped in frost-free areas where cereals can be produced year-round.
Farmers in these areas can be facilitated to produce maize to replenish local stocks.
The strategy should be to reduce food imports through promotion of local production.
The population needs to be conscientised on the need for self-sufficiency.
Some sacrifices will need to be made; we have become a society used to luxuries that the US dollar can buy, but that are non-essential.
Can we not learn from our history?
An animal that fails to adapt perishes and becomes extinct.
To successfully implement Zim-ASSET, we must call for economic austerity and fiscal discipline.
Whatever measures we take to restore our economic fortunes must be applied non-selectively.
And lest we forget we are in a war!.
Recent revelations of huge pay cheques and luxurious perks for senior executives in some parastatals point to the need for modesty and hard work.
We must create the wealth that we consume.
Corruption is a monster that must be confronted; otherwise it will devour us and render our political revolution a hollow success.
The private sector has been notorious for paying huge packages to top executives who become isolated islands among the impoverished workforce.
It seems some parastatals have followed the example of the private sector.
These vices need to be corrected through implementation of tough rules and regulations that promote fair practices and intolerance to corrupt practices.
If we are to survive as a vibrant African economy we must take charge of our affairs.
Zim-ASSET provides the framework.
Who wants to be part of a sorry neo-colony being looted by foreigners with the connivance of corrupt self-centered leaders and civil servants and private sector company managements?
What legacy will we leave for our children and grand children?
Agriculture is our number one priority.
Why not use the forex to support local farmers to produce food and create employment?
Tiri kurasika papi?
Unity and commitment will see us through.
Pamberi nezim-ASSET!
Pamberi nokushanda.
Pasi nokungochemachema.
Zimbabwe ndeyedu.
Let’s work for its success.