The Sunday Mail
Emilia Zindi – Agriculture Editor
To date, nothing of substance has been said or done about preparations for the winter wheat season, despite the fact that we are only two months away from planting time.
By this time, farmers should have already stocked seed, fertiliser and chemicals; as well as securing money for fuel and machinery needs.
In some cases, land preparations would have started even as the summer crops are being harvested.
But wheat farming in Zimbabwe is headed nowhere fast.
Last season only 3 000 hectares was put under the crop, compared to the previous year when 4 000 hectares were planted. Naturally, 2014 saw 10 000 tonnes of wheat being delivered, 4 000 less than in 2013.
Zimbabwe requires no less than 400 000 tonnes of wheat annually and has always been a net importer of the crop – but soon the country might be buying all its wheat needs.
Government is unlikely to avail any special production facilities via the Grain Marketing Board for 2015, and financial institutions are equally mum on how they intend to support wheat planting. It is this scenario that saw stakeholders meeting last week in Harare to discuss the way forward.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Mr Wonder Chabikwa said: “The constituency I represent, which is the farmers, is so much willing and prepared to do wheat farming every year; especially those with functional irrigation facilities. All they are crying for is for the environment to be made conducive for growing the crop.”
Mr Chabikwa said farmers were owed US$50 million for grain already delivered to the GMB and they needed this money to plant wheat. Another big thorn in the flesh of farmers is the availability of water and electricity, as well as their cost. Water from Zinwa and electricity from Zesa cost much more here than in Zambia and South Africa.
Interestingly, Zimbabwe imports much of its wheat from and/or via these two countries. In Zambia, farmers pay between ZMK1 000 and ZMK1 120 (USc21 and USc23) per cubic metre of water. The cost in Zimbabwe is about US$8 per cubic metre.
Further, Zambian farmers pay around USc0,004 per kw/hour while their Zimbabwean counterparts pay roughly USc0,166 per kw/h.
“Farmers are asking what is in it for them to grow wheat. We have been lobbying for a long time to have these tariffs reviewed downward. This is why our farmers should never be compared to their regional counterparts when pricing their produce. Compound to these charges input costs of seed, fertiliser and chemicals,” Mr Chabikwa said. Mr Chabikwa said before land reforms, white farmers were charged far less for irrigation water and electricity. Water from a dam on one’s own property was priced at less than US$1 per cubic metre and even this cost more than water from Government dams.
“We are not saying farmers should not pay for water and electricity. All we want are the high charges to come down, while most crops are wilting, the rains we had fortunately filled our dams,” Mr Chabikwa said.
Irrigation infrastructure is in a sorry state, with much underground piping and sprinkler systems in need of repairs.
In a recent report, Zinwa said farmers owed the water authority more than US$35 million. The authority also contends that its tariffs are low, with commercial farmers being charged US$9,45 for every one million litres of water drawn from a Zinwa-operated dam. According to the department, the amount charged was far below what farmers spent on less important things and it was money they could pay easily upon selling their produce.
The money Zinwa collects is used for maintenance of dams and related infrastructure. Several important dams – such as Mazvikadei, Bangala, Mazowe, Manjirenji, Osbourne and Muzhwi – need constant maintenance.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister (in charge of crops) Davies Marapira said they would continue engaging water and electricity utilities to secure concessions for wheat farmers.
Financial institutions, on the other hand, argue that inasmuch as they want to support wheat, the high level of non-performing loans tied their hands.
“We do not want such a situation where our farmers instead of prospering get poorer to the extent of losing a house,” banker Christopher Mashangure said.
Reserve Bank Governor Dr John Mangudya urged banks to restructure loans rather than attach defaulting debtors’ property. He said financial institutions should adopt new approaches to recoup funds.
“I have told the bank chief executives to have a developmental approach and not to attach properties of loan defaulters. We must manage non-performing loans by restructuring them. The current situation where short-term loans are funding long-term projects is not sustainable as it exacerbates bad debts,” said the RBZ chief.
