THE announcement last week by Vice-President (VP) Emmerson Mnangagwa that Government is targeting the next four agricultural seasons in order to ensure food security is testimony the country’s leadership is looking forward to reviving the economy that has been hard-hit by sanctions.
VP Mnangagwa, who is also the chairperson of the Cabinet Committee on Food Security and Nutrition, was touring the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA)’s Jotsholo Estate last week to assess the work being carried out at the sprawling plantation.
His announcement dovetails with President Robert Mugabe’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) in which he unveiled a 10-point plan to maintain economic growth anchored on reviving agriculture.
The first two plans of the SONA are important in the next four seasons that VP Mnangagwa identified as crucial to achieving food security.
These are:
l Revitalising agriculture and the agro-processing value chain.
l Advancing beneficiation and/or value-addition to our agricultural and mining resource endowment.
In the SONA, President Mugabe highlighted the negative impact of climate change in the fight to attaining food security.
“In 2014 to 2015 season, crop production was negatively affected by a combination of the late onset of rains and its uneven distribution, both consequences of climate change,” said President Mugabe.
“Consequently, the agricultural sector performance will be below expectation.
“Such a situation negatively impacts the country’s overall economic growth.
“In line with our Food and Nutrition policy thrust, Government, working closely with the private sector and development partners, has adopted a grain importation programme, even though, as we now discover from the volumes of maize sales to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), our farmers did better than we had estimated.”
Already ARDA has invested about US$600 million in various projects since dollarisation through public-private partnerships.
To date, more than 10 estates have been either revived or expanded.
ARDA owns 22 estates and some of its household estates include Katiyo Tea Estates and ARDA Transau Estates, which was allocated to diamond mining companies operating in Marange to relocate families affected by their activities.
The State-owned entity also owns Chisumbanje Sugarcane Estates where it has shares in the multi-million dollar ethanol plant, Green Fuel, its biggest investment since the adoption of the multi-currency system.
In Matabeleland North, ARDA has successfully revived five estates which are at various stages of implementation.
These include a 600-hectare wheat farm at Antelope Estate while land preparations are progressing at Ngwezi Farm.
The farm is earmarked for maize production during the forthcoming cropping season.
At Jotsholo Estate, ARDA has partnered a Chinese investor for cotton production.
In partnership with local investors, it now has a mixed beef cattle herd of about 700 at Sedgewick.
In Mashonaland, Doren’s Pride Livestock Estate has been revived and 300 cattle have since been imported from Namibia for breeding.
Part of ARDA’s strategy includes growing maize at most of the estates as opposed to cash crops such as soya beans to achieve food security.
State-of-the-art equipment has been deployed at Nandi Sugarcane Estate in Chiredzi and at Fair Acres Estate in the Midlands Province where it is growing maize and wheat.
In partnership with Schweppes Zimbabwe, ARDA has finalised a deal to commence operations at Best Fruit Processors (BFP), a tomato canning plant in Norton.
The project is the brainchild of the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo.
The plant was to produce canned tomato largely for export markets.
Schweppes Zimbabwe is providing working capital.
The project is expected to create thousands of jobs directly and through out-grower schemes.
Agriculture, the country’s economic anchor, was identified as a prime target of the West’s illegal economic sanctions.
When America imposed illegal economic sanctions against Zimbabwe on December 21 2001 under what they called, and still call, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA), the target was the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme that was initiated in 1999.
The programme saw over 400 000 black households acquiring the country’s prime land that was previously owned by about 4 000 white commercial farmers.
Section 5 of ZDERA, which demands a return to the land reform formulae proposed by Western donors that included America itself, confirms the attack on the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme is central to America’s policy on Zimbabwe.
It authorises the US president to: “Support equitable, legal and transparent mechanisms of land reforms in Zimbabwe, including payment of costs related to the acquisition of land and the resettlement of individuals, constituent with International Donors’ Conference on Land Reform and Resettlement in Zimbabwe, in September 1998, or any subsequent agreements relating thereto.”
On the other hand, with only 37 percent of the country receiving rainfall considered adequate for agriculture and the severe effects of climate change taking a toll, development of a vibrant irrigation system is critical.
However, development of a vibrant irrigation system has been at a snail’s pace.
Reasons cited for the relatively low rate of irrigation development in sub-Saharan Africa include high cost of irrigation development, inadequate physical infrastructure and markets, poor investments in irrigation and lack of access to improved irrigation technologies.
Irrigated agriculture has driven much of the increase in global food production over recent decades.
While only 20 percent of the world’s farmland is irrigated, the highest yields obtained from irrigation are more than double the highest yields from rain-fed agriculture in Zimbabwe at the moment.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that global agriculture yields will fall by up to 30 percent in 2050 due to the worsening impact of climate change.
This means future efforts to acquire grain from world markets may be very difficult for countries that fail to produce enough on their own.
There is no doubt more needs to be done to curb the rampant effects of climate change.
Reviving agriculture is imperative.
Let those with ears listen.