News Analysis: New initiative to aid Zimbabwe's struggling agriculture

The Zimbabwean government has given more than 19,600 farmers agricultural inputs under a command agriculture facility designed to boost food security.

Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo told journalists after a meeting of the ruling Zanu-PF's politburo Wednesday evening that at least 163,865 hectares of both irrigable and dry land had been put under contract with 75 percent already tilled.

The government this year launched the command agriculture initiative through which selected farmers are given inputs and irrigation and mechanized equipment under a three-year 500-million-U.S.-dollar program.

The program offers tillage and production inputs such as fertilizers, seed and chemicals on a cost recovery basis.

Participating farmers are required to produce more than 5 tonnes of maize per hectare on 400,000 hectares under strict supervision from government agricultural experts.

Generally, the average maize yield per hectare is 0.8 tonnes on about 1.2 million hectares.

Chombo told The Herald newspaper that 19,608 farmers had benefited from the program.

"Under this program, 2,658 agricultural extension workers and 91,000 farmers were trained with a total of 1,229 learning centers having been established," he said.

Government expects the farmers to supply the initial 5 tonnes per hectare to state grain procurer the Grain Marketing Board as repayment for the inputs and retain the surplus for personal use.

The Office of the President and the Cabinet initiated the program to curb food insecurity which had risen from 12 percent in 2011 to 42 percent in 2016.

About 4 million Zimbabweans need food assistance this year as a result of the El Nino-induced drought.

One agriculture expert who declined to be named said if the program was done properly, it would be the solution to Zimbabwe's perennial food deficit.

He was worried however that time was running out as the agricultural season was fast approaching, yet more farmers still had to be brought on board to meet the 400,000-hectare target.

Zimbabwe's planting season usually starts in November and extends to early January depending on the earliness of the rains.

The country requires about 2 million tonnes annually for both human and livestock consumption but has been failing to meet its requirements for more than a decade following poor harvests caused by various factors.

These include farm disruptions, which took place during the land reform period when white commercial farmers were removed to make way for landless blacks, lack of inputs, production inefficiencies, erratic rains and diversification by many farmers from maize to cash crops, especially tobacco.

Traditionally Zimbabwean farmers grow maize on 1.2 million hectares, and if they could achieve just 2 tonnes per hectare, the country would be food sufficient.

Economist Clemence Machadu said in a recent interview with Xinhua that the command agriculture facility was "good in principle" but urged the implementers to shun corruption and avoid past misdemeanors where connected individuals benefited ahead of more deserving cases.

"The money translates to 1,250 dollars per hectare, which is adequate, given how maize production requires an average of 1,200 dollars per hectare in Zimbabwe.

"But it is ambitious in terms of its targets and we can not rule out corruption and partisanship along the lines of distribution. There is a good chance of intermediate beneficiaries, if we are to judge on the basis of history," he said.

He added that there was also need for concrete real-time monitoring mechanisms during implementation to ensure that the beneficiaries do not sell the inputs as had happened before.

Machadu also suggested technical assistance from partners with more sophisticated farming practices like China.

For instance, the China-Aid Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center at Gwebi Agricultural College 27 km northwest of Harare has been teaching locals how to improve their yields and produces more than 10 tonnes of maize per hectare. Endit