The Sunday Mail
BY Jeanette Manjengwa, Teresa Smart and Joseph Hanlon
All countries must make political choices as to how to allocate scarce resources.
Bill Gates should visit Zimbabwe again, but this time look at agriculture instead of big game.
In a recent blog he points to land reform as essential for raising agricultural production and generating money to invest in industry.
He cites the Asian experience and asks if it can be applied to Africa.
But in Zimbabwe, it already is.
Gates says the Asian experience is that “rapid agricultural development requires redistributing land more equitably among the farming population” and that “when you give farmers ownership of modest plots and allow them to profit from the fruits of their labour, farm yields are much higher per hectare”.
A1 farmers in Zimbabwe already show that.
“To date, I haven’t focused as much on the land ownership piece as I have on the role of better seeds, fertilisers, and farming practices,” Gates admits, and says he has instructed the Gates Foundation “agricultural team” to look more closely at issues of land.
They should definitely study Zimbabwe, which already has all the parts of the package Gates advocates: modern seeds, fertiliser, and an excellent agricultural extension service as well as more equitable land occupation.
The problem is one that Gates tends to ignore: access to inputs. Fertiliser and other inputs such as herbicides and irrigation are expensive.
In researching our book “Zimbabwe Takes Back its Land”, we saw that the biggest constraint on the 146 000 A1 farmers was capital – they simply do not have the money to become highly productive.
In agriculture, Zimbabwe is an advanced country. Seed companies provide modern hybrid seed, Agritex offers excellent advice, and fertiliser is available.
Some A1 farmers grow 15 tonnes or more of maize. But that requires each farmer to spend at least US$1 500 at the start of the season.
Too few farmers can afford that.
Many A1 farmers are switching to producing tobacco on contract, because the contract companies provide all the inputs on credit and guarantee to buy the tobacco.
Maize can be more profitable than tobacco, but it doesn’t have the support given to tobacco.
Bill Gates may be one of the world’s richest capitalists, but he accepts that the total free market is not the answer for Africa.
His agriculture blog is a positive response to Joe Studwell’s book “How Asia Works”.
Gates points out that Studwell “makes a strong historical case that the successful countries do not simply rely on the invisible hand of market forces”.
Indeed, they “usually give lip service to free-market principles” while actively intervening in the markets.
Europe, the United States, and many Asian countries have shown that small commercial farmers can dramatically increase production if they are supported.
The A1 farmers, the 1980s land reform farmers and the larger communal farmers could substantially increase production if they had credit and a fertiliser subsidy.
Indeed, Zimbabwe demonstrated this in the early years of independence with its support for small commercial farming of maize.
Malawi has already shown the success of a fertiliser subsidy. And the A1 farmers moving to tobacco show they respond to support.
All countries must make political choices as to how to allocate scarce resources.
If Zimbabwe accepts the Gates view that a rapid growth in small-scale commercial agricultural production can be a driver of rural and then industrial development, then a choice must be made to support small farmers.
That means diverting some mineral revenues for subsidies to small commercial farmers.
As Gates points out, land reform is essential.
But it is not enough. Small farmers must be sure they can keep their land.
Some advocate free-market and freehold title policies, but this often leads to small farmers selling or losing their land, and a re-consolidation into large farms.
In particular land mortgages are a bad way of providing credit, because small farmers can too easily lose their land after a bad season.
Brazil is an example of this, and the Landless People’s Movement there reoccupies underused large farms.
What small farmers need is security of tenure. They need to be sure that they will not lose their land to banks or foreign investors.
Two years ago, Bill and Melinda Gates and their two children were on safari in Zimbabwe.
And the Gates Foundation supports development projects here.
It is time for them to return to look at an African example of the Asian model he advocates.
Perhaps the Foundation could put money into supporting A1 small commercial farmers, which could encourage the Government into increasing its support.
Bill Gates is right.
Land reform is essential and small commercial farmers can drive African development. But these small farmers also need security of tenure, credit, and subsidised inputs.
In addition, the farmers have a responsibility to protect the environment to ensure sustainability.
Jeanette Manjengwa, Teresa Smart and Joseph Hanlon are the authors of “Zimbabwe Takes Back its Land”.
