Zimbabwe: Dependency kills farmers' innovation

28 April 2010, The Herald
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/201004270043.html

Harare: While it is true that the child that cries first is usually the first to get the mother's attention, the stark reality is that the child that cries with every chance that comes by can easily turn into a pest and drive away that attention.

The same can be said of our farmers -- when they sent out a distress call, the Government and in some cases, independent organisations responded and proffered assistance, usually in the form of capital and inputs and gave them the send-off they needed.

Little did the Government and the numerous Good Samaritans realise that they would have to routinely deal with the same situation with every season that comes with farmers always in need of fresh re-capitalisation and subsidised inputs but with what results?

"Farmers must learn to produce adequately for both their domestic consumption and for the markets from where they can generate revenue to fund fresh seasons.

"Each time they look to Government for handouts because they are not acting as businesspeople who have targets to beat, which leaves them unable to plan and draw budgets from their earnings," Seed Co marketing manager Ivan Craig recently said.

It still remains a sobering truth that farmers needed and still need assistance but they should also remember that they are not expected to get assistance with the turn of every season -- they do not have to be perennial dependents and should understand that they are in farming for business.

The age of subsistence production has since galloped by and in its place commercial agriculture has come accompanied by a host of requirements especially on quality of produce, market studies, budgeting and planning.

Minus the problem of global warming that has changed agricultural seasons for the worse, farmers should be able to appreciate the fact that the economy is just emerging from a recession and the liquidity crunch typical of such times has not spared any sector of the economy.

Yes, they need capital and the banks are usually expected to play the role of financier, a role they are failing to do effectively because of liquidity problems.

Just recently, many farmers have been complaining over banks' failure to extend loans as most of the institutions need collateral upfront, which most farmers think is a clause to deny them access to funding.

The reality is that banks also need security to remain viable and most farmers have over the years proved that they are not very good and reliable business partners especially when they failed to honour contractual obligations after doing contract farming.

This has left some service providers, banks included, a bit reluctant to deal with the farmers.

"Farmers can help their cause by getting organised. They need to plan and target to have very low production costs while guaranteeing high productivity, a scenario that will enable them to finance their operations without necessarily extending the begging bowl every now and then," said Craig.

They must be able to draw their own project proposals with which to approach banks and be prepared to re-pay the loans plus the interests on an individual basis, he added.

Additionally, the farmers need to use loans for activities that leave them changed for the better and not re-channel the capital to other interests that are not related to agriculture leaving them unable to re-pay the loans. They inevitably earn the bad debtor tag that way.

It is also rational for farmers to diversify their projects so that in the event that one fails they always have a fallback position. This habit of investing in one project for an entire season has seen many of the farmers nursing bruised egos after things soured in the course of the season.

Projects that quickly generate incomes are the ones farmers should choose and when they have occasions to meet they may also need to form associations that may prove vital in seeking markets and even technical assistance.

Most service providers are sometimes comfortable dealing with groups as this gives them some kind of security as groups often deliver better than individuals and are able to meet their obligations more readily too.

"Farmers' associations can make it possible for them to explore export markets and jointly export produce to generate the much-needed foreign revenue at the same time.

"This will also attract foreign investment into the country as some of the buyers of our local produce may find it worthwhile processing it locally thereby investing and developing infrastructure at the same time," prominent Muzarabani farmer Edward Raradza once commented.

He added that such a development would also come as a challenge to the farmers to start value addition of their produce and generate more revenue in the process while creating employment opportunities as well.

The bulk of our farmers thrive on rain-fed agriculture, which unfortunately has suffered immensely from the current climate change problems but farmers can not just watch and cry without looking for ways to mitigate the effects.

"It is time the farmers adopt ploughing and planting technologies and switch to crop varieties that are a bit commensurate with the changing times. I am happy that many farmers have since adopted conservation agriculture and are performing well and realising good profits from their different ventures, which is significantly slashing their over-reliance on Government or donors for funding and inputs," Kadoma district agricultural extension officer Evelyn Ndoro recently said.

Generally, most farmers feel the Government should help their cause every time and their famous wish "Dai hurumende yatibatsira gore rino taikohwa zvakanaka. Hatisi kuwana zvekushandisa nenguva saka tisiri kuita zvakanaka" (If only the Government could assist us this year we would have good harvests. We are failing to mobilise adequate resources in time so we are not performing well).

This dependency syndrome that has crept into the day to day existence of most farmers is actually stifling their capacity to perform individually and eroding the revenue they are supposed to generate.

Farmers must realise that agriculture is slowly turning into a profession the world over that is employing millions of people and also turning millions into employers, hence the need to treat it with the respect that any other industry deserves, one technocrat commented at a recent field day in Mhangura.

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