SOUTHERN AFRICA BREAD BUSCKET TO CASE BUSKET:

WHAT WENT WRONG AND WHAT SHOULD BE DONE

Zimbabwean agriculture at a certain point in time was regarded as a jewel of Africa and a
basket of the southern African nations but it lost it track due multiple factors that cascaded for
decades chiefly mostly them climate change, ill-perceived agrarian policies, lack of knowledge
based approach to agriculture production, adoption economic adjustment programs and
politicising arable lands . This factors made Zimbabwe to remain with memories of her past
glories and traumas of being thrown out to the dustbins of agrarian production patterns.
Accordingly in 1980, the late President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania was able to say to then
Prime Minister Robert Mugabe that " You have inherited the jewel of Africa, please take care
not to spoil it" meaning a basket full of resources cutting across all sectors from agriculture.
However her former status can be revived through implementation of fair land audit,
introduction of state controlled urban agriculture educating the resettlement farmers on proper
agrarian methods and conservation, investing in returning agrarian subsidies on apolitical bases
and implement new technologies such vemiculture, sensors which detects droughts and invest
on irrigation extracting water from underground to promote whole year production.
The new dawn of Zimbabwe between 1980 and 90 production metrics were very high with
millions of tonnes of grain and horticulture products, no matter worst periods of severe
droughts, our silos would carry sufficient grain reserves to take us through to the next rainy
season. The country boasted of hard working rural citizens routinely accorded 'Master Farmer'
status, with critical knowledge imparted by committed agriculture extension officers
commonly referred to as 'abaDomeni / maDhomeni'. This maDhomeni were individuals paid
by the state to 'demonstrate sustainable farming methods and it assist in building a two way
production trends for Zimbabwe with the substance farmers contributing about thirty percent
to the gross domestic product of the nation, which top up the commercial farming productivity
and export excess to the Southern Africa development Committee(SADC). During the first
decades the country’s maize production contributed a share of more than 5% to Africa’s output.
While it was a net importer in most years, on average, the country remained a net exporter of
maize
The course of 1990s tides turn on agrarian productivity as the government implemented
economic structural adjustments programs initiated by the international monetary fund and the
World Bank which prohibited states to fund subdues and encourage privatisation, marked a
beginning to the pitfall of Zimbabwean agriculture sector with farmers left to fund and source
their own enterprises, this was a period again were the dollar was devalued making it difficult
for the farmer to maintain his production level and it particularly write off subsistence farmers
prowess to secure adequate resources. This caused a shape decline in productive from
agronomy to animal production with more than 10% decline recorded in 1993 and the ripple
effect of the adjustments programs felt heavily even up to early 2000s as the nation was
indebted.
The deteriorating factor which left Zimbabwe as a case basket of Africa was the Fast-Track
Land Reform Programme in 2001 though it was done as a good attribute of black empowerment
it lacked fundamental principles which lead to shape decline in agrarian production. This is
elaborated by the country’s share of maize production on the continent dwindled to an average
of 2% between 2001 and 2016. During this period, Zimbabwe’s maize consumption outpaced
production by an average of 550,000 tonnes per year – turning it into a net importer.
Millions of peasant farmers 'resettled' in previously title-secure commercial farms received
virtually no meaningful support to become successful farmers. Some of them had no skills and
resources of their own to produce grain. Five thousand white commercial farmers who were
rendered homeless abandoned agriculture and left for other countries with their skills. Their
unpaid farming debts crippled the banking sector. Fertiliser and tractor companies heavily
dependent on the agriculture value chain were liquidated, so were engineering companies in
Bulawayo and Gweru. In short, the collapse of agricultural production in a country whose
manufacturing sector was/is essentially founded on agro based industries inevitably led to the
collapse of manufacturing
Maize production has fallen from a peak of 2 million tons in the year 2000 to just over 500
thousand tons in 2014; wheat from a peak of just over 300 thousand tons in 2001 to less than
10 thousand tons last year; coffee from 10 thousand tons in 1998 to around 1 000 tons in 2014;
beef from a peak of just under 160 thousand tons in 1991 to around 25 thousand tons by 2014;
milk from a peak of 250 million litres in 1991 to about 50 million litres by last year. As a result,
the country's food imports as a percentage of total imports has multiplied on average almost
seven-fold between the year 2000 and to date.
Erratic rainfall patterns which resulted in 2002, 2008 droughts contributed to Zimbabwean
agriculture vulnerability and collapse, as main plants were destroyed and failed to reach
maturity stage even in livestock sector production decline and the nation lost thousands of its
herd and reduced livestock population by 20%.This was clearly shown in Chipinge were a beast
was exchanged for a fifty kilograms of maize.
Lack of consistent drought proofing policies to improve drought resilience mechanisms to the
nation. This includes improving storage systems, so that people can tide over from one season
to the next; encouraging switching to drought resistant crops such as small grains, and
continuing to invest in drought tolerant maize varieties; improving irrigation systems, including
very small scale water harvesting systems, as well as ‘schemes’; and focusing on livestock as
an important asset for exchange in times of drought, this is still lacking in Zimbabwe as policies
crafter and agriculture ministry are delaying to introduce all the measures of drought proofing.
However with all the challenges which fallen upon the Zimbabwe agrarian sector, there is still
light to restore the sector and reclaim its status if every citizen held himself accountable to the
development trajectory of the sector by supporting and contributing towards realisation of agro
tech related production in Zimbabwe which will help to curb drought effects and empower
farmers with all required subdues for farming.
On governance the responsible ministries such as finance, agriculture and technology should
create empowerment boards to assist start up in a techno related innovations on how Zimbabwe
can awake her agriculture sector and also start to priorities funding idea based proposal and
venture farms web.