By Saul Gwakuba-Ndlovu
ADDRESSING a huge rally in Masvingo Province recently, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said, among other things, that it was necessary to carry out research to find possible ways in which Zimbabwe’s economy can, and should, be revived.
That was a very good observation because without a clear formula, it would be more or less futile to throw money and personnel into projects whose various dimensions have not be analysed.
Many a time people lose money and time or even lives by plunging into projects without first analysing their actual and potential benefits, chances of success, actual and possible risks, immediate and remote opportunities, and their threats, if any, from rivals in both the domestic and the international environments.
A planned and detailed investigation of various aspects of a project, especially economic projects, needs to be made before it is launched lest it turns out to be either a wild goose chase or a mere white elephant.
Zimbabwe’s national economy is based on two environments – the rural and the urban environments — each of which has its own characteristics or factors.
Factors needed to develop the country’s rural economy have to consider whether agriculture or mining, forestry, fishing or tourism is the basis of the particular economic sector being analysed.
Whatever is the basis, every sector needs manpower (personnel), a factor that Zimbabwe has in abundance notwithstanding its quality.
Now that Zimbabwe has adopted devolution as a form of governance, each province has no alternative but to identify its economic strengths in the form of a natural resource (material resources) with a view to train its manpower for that particular sector.
In view of the obvious fact that Zimbabwe is a multi-party nation, provinces just have to take that into practical consideration when forming economic development structures.
Traditional leaders such as chiefs, headmen and village heads have to be trained in basic economic development.
These leaders, including councillors, can be trained for brief periods at such institutions as polytechnical colleges and/or universities.
Provincial economic development committee members should also be beneficiaries of such training prorgrammes so that they can, in turn, train their respective communities.
Identified crops can be targeted for various regions according to soils and market opportunities.
Potatoes, for example, can be produced with the nearest urban centre or centres as the target market; so can sugar beans, a crop whose target markets include boarding schools, hospitals, police and military camps.
Cotton can be produced at Gokwe, Tsholotsho and elsewhere, not just for the export market but for the local textile industry for which Zimbabwe can, and should, take advantage of its excellent relations with China and Japan to acquire textile technology.
That would involve not only provincial administration, but the central Government because of its international dimension.
The rural areas can be turned into real economic powerhouses by identifying each province with particular agricultural products, and by training people accordingly.
Canning of some products such as tomatoes can be done in the rural areas, a measure that can reduce unnecessary wastage and simultaneously create employment.
Some of Zimbabwe’s rural areas are very much suitable for fruits such as mangoes and guavas.
Devolution should be used to develop a viable fruit production industry.
Canning of those fruits for export is another way of giving life to our economy.
Livestock is a very exciting economic activity because it is traditional in Zimbabwe to rear cattle, goats, sheep, chickens and pigs.
What is required nowadays, however, is to use modern, scientific methods to be a successful livestock farmer.
Suitable pens, fowl runs, sties and feed are necessary in this regard.
Once more, we refer to devolution and how traditional leadership can, and should, work hand-in-hand with political parties to uplift their respective provinces.
They can start by finding out how many formally unemployed people there are in their provinces.
This can be done quickly and cheaply by ordering every village head to state on a special form how many people below an agreed age are jobless in their village.
Village heads can submit their findings to headmen who, in turn, can pass on the information to chiefs, and hence to district administrators and finally to provincial administrators.
Working with councillors, that can be done in a couple of weeks rather than months.
Another economic activity that can enliven rural economies is tree planting, an activity that should be viewed on a long-term basis, bearing in mind that the larger a nation’s populations grows, the less its trees and plants become.
Zimbabwe needs, therefore, to create a large supply of trees for construction, fuel and furniture purposes.
In a few years, good timber will be a very rare commodity, not only in Zimbabwe, but right through the SADC region if tree planting is not prioritised.
Each province should indeed provide areas for tree plantations; advice as to what kind or species of trees can be got from eSwatini (Swaziland), a SADC country where we find one of the largest manmade forests in the world.
Talking about tree planting brings us to a fact that is not at all liked by cattle ranchers: Grass cannot grow under trees; so where there are predominantly trees, goats can thrive because they are 95 percent browsers whereas cattle are the exact opposite, 95 percent grazers and five percent browsers.
We now turn to a very (if not the most) important question, what role do people in the rural areas need to play to achieve effective economic development?
Five factors are vital in the development of any economic project – material, market, manpower, money and motivation.
It is important to have either adequate material for constructions of the project, or easy access to such material.
By easy access we are referring to it being readily available, easily transportable in terms of distance and time.
Market refers to demand for what is produced, whether it is goods or services.
The market for those goods or services being actual people with money and a wish and authority to spend that money.
A market may be domestic or foreign.
Manpower is vital for the construction and the operation of every project, and an important element of that department is management, a manpower section that comprises professionals who have a stewardship relationship to the project’s or company’s ownership.
Money is, of course, the wherewithal in the establishment of economic projects.
It can be in the form of investments by the project owners as is the case of sole traders or it can be contributions by the company or co–operative shareholders.
Motivation is an important aspect of economic, social, political, and even cultural development.
It is most useful in communities characterised by inertia, that is to say a situation in which a community continues unchanged in its current condition unless it is influenced or motivated by an external force, factor or factors.
Such force or factors are necessary to motivate some families, some communities and some nations to develop and progress in various spheres of life.
Discussing economic development in Zimbabwe is not complete without a comment on the relation between the rate at which the country’s population is increasing vis-a-vis that at which the national economy is growing.
The Government needs to be realistic about this matter which is likely to get out of hand sooner rather than later.
Zimbabwe needs to learn from the Chinese experience by adopting a population control policy that takes into account the current national per capita income and the population density.
Economic growth rate has to be higher than that of population growth for the economy to have a positive effect on the nation at large.
If a population increases but the economy either stagnates or shrinks, poverty and destitution occur.
Saul Gwakuba-Ndlovu is a retired, Bulawayo-based journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734 328 136 or through email. sgwakuba@gmail.com