The Sunday Mail
Ashbold Mari
Zimbabwe is a direct result of the liberation struggle. The main agenda of the black majority was to liberate themselves from the oppression of the white minority.
Today, the country is a free sovereign state.
Understanding how the liberation struggle was fought may help us understand supply chain management and how it can help bring about economic freedom.
Supply chain management, among other related definitions, is the active management of supply chain activities to maximise customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
The concept of Supply Chain Management is based on two core ideas.
The first is that every product that reaches an end user represents the cumulative effort of multiple organisations.
These organisations are referred to collectively as the supply chain.
The second idea is that while supply chains have existed for a long time, most organisations have only paid attention to what was happening within their “four walls.”
Few businesses understood, much less managed, the entire chain of activities that ultimately delivered products to the final customer.
The result was disjointed and often ineffective supply chains.
It is therefore imperative to say that the freedom we enjoy today was a result of the efforts of men and women who in their respective assignments made it possible for the freedom fighters to do their job.
These include the chimbwidos, mujibhas, vana mukoma (comrades), village heads, chiefs, musicians, journalists and many more.
There were also friendly countries within which ZANLA and ZIPRA forces had their bases.
To these nations, our comrades were sent for training to fight in a struggle that brought independence.
Every aspect, from the masses to the leaders helped the fire of the struggle to burn.
All of them were equally important to the struggle as everyone accepted the risk associated with what they were doing.
Post independence, even the mujibhas and chimbwidos are proud to have contributed to the bringing of freedom.
Lesson learnt from the war of liberation is that all these people had to be mobilised and all the activities and programs had to be coordinated by leaders at their respective levels.
Every point had to be managed for it to be helpful for the cause of the war.
Let us use the same technique to bring economic freedom for our beloved country.
In the Holy Bible, it is recorded that Joseph developed a strategic plan in preparation for the years of hunger.
When those years came, he had enough food for the whole nation and all nations far and near. Egypt became the bread basket of North Africa.
Joseph simply managed the supply chain and made sure it was sustainable.
This year, more than 1,5 million people in Zimbabwe are facing hunger as an El Nino-induced drought is expected to decimate harvests.
850 000 people are in urgent need of food aid. It is becoming evident that most areas will not harvest enough food this season because of erratic rains, not only in Zimbabwe, but throughout Southern Africa.
The Grain Marketing Board is in the process of importing grain from other countries.
The State Procurement Board allowed the parastatal to bring 30 000 tonnes from Zambia with immediate effect without going to tender, while 200 000 will be going to tender, thereby bringing the total tonnage to 230 000.
The GMB has deports across the country and is facing challenges in moving grain from its depots.
In short, Zimbabwe needs maize to alleviate hunger.
But the first question is, what has Zambia done for it to have sufficient food for its citizens and to supply the entire region, that Zimbabwe couldn’t do?
Zimra has promised to assist in the speedy clearance of trucks ferrying maize into the country through Chirundu and Kariba border posts and one wonders if Zimra’s duty wasn’t always to make it easier for any process of clearing goods at the borders.
The long queues of trucks at the Chirundu border is evident of the fact that Zimra needs to improve efficiency in terms of clearing goods at all borders.
Has Zimra not realised that it is doing a disservice to the country by not making Chirundu operate round the clock, especially after several calls from stakeholders? Chirundu is Southern Africa’s One Stop Boarder post, yet it operates 16 hours a day. There is no business sense in that arrangement.
That leads to my next question. If Government is facing challenges in moving grain from GMB depots, how is the grain going to reach the end user?
Most of our rural road networks are inaccessible, making it almost impossible for trucks to ferry grains to the final destination.
People then have to device ways of bringing the grains to their respective homes at a higher cost.
The same has been happening to small holder farmers in transporting their produce to the GMB.
The hassle of delivering grains to the nearest depot may prompt the farmers to keep their produce.
This means there is an aspect within the supply chain that needs to be addressed, and that is accessibility.
If road access was right in the time of good rains, farmers would have delivered grains to the GMB.
However, farmers may have lost faith in GMB since have not been paid on time when they deliver grains.
Another aspect of supply chain management is called strategic planning.
The strategic planning process involves the strategic supply chain design and strategic sourcing. Strategic supply chain design is the evaluation and optimisation of the supply chain model used in the planning applications.
Every part of the supply chain such as locations, transportation lanes, resources and products are modelled to execute planning based on this network.
Clearly what we are experiencing now is evidence of poor planning by relevant authorities.
Hunger is a crisis but what makes it worse is when you know you could have done something about it.
Looking forward, Government is calling for the urgent rehabilitation of national irrigation infrastructure for increased production.
Before we talk about irrigation, let us talk about water harvesting and let us invest in both.
Most farmers will use the infrastructure to irrigate tobacco then wait for the rain to plant cereals.
The goal of Zim Asset is, in this context, food security but in as much as Government has put proper structures to achieve this goal, does it manage the implementation thereof?
For instance, Government has over the years provided free inputs to smallholder grain farmers, with efforts aimed at boosting household and national food production, but results have not been pleasing due to several factors, including climate change.
Yes, climate change is a big factor but it is one we have little control over, but why deliver hybrid variety maize seed that need lots of water and takes very long to mature when the weather reports are clearly stating that we will receive normal to below normal rains?
One wonders why seed processors in this country keep producing such varieties when climate change is the sermon of the century.
Small holder farmers contribute to the national food production but surely ARDA can do more. ARDA, are there no home grown solutions than spending decades crying foul?
All stakeholders need to self-introspect and stop preaching, but start living these sermons. These include farmers, Government and seed processors.
With 16 000 cattle being reported dead so far, and the effects of the drought are just beginning, urgent steps needs to be taken to avoid a real disaster in this country.
Relevant authorities should look into the issue of pasture harvesting as a short term measure and irrigated pastures as long term.
All mechanisms that the Government has put in place to promote food security in this country are not bad. We have developed supply chains, but they need to be run in the most effective and efficient way possible.
Agriculture remains the priority sector in achieving sustainable economic growth and reducing poverty.
Just as in the arms struggle, victory is certain, and so is economic freedom and with that food security is guaranteed.
Ashbold Mari writes in his personal capacity.
