The Sunday Mail
The benefits of the entire Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme have now been well-established since the main pilot plots in the 2019-2020 season, involving just under 10 000 families, showed that the basic basket of conservation agriculture, adequate inputs, and some backbreaking labour worked.
That pilot scheme was run in a drought year and the results were still impressive, even more so since the essential concept of climate proofing was spectacularly proven in action with real families farming ordinary holdings, rather than experts trying out ideas in ideal circumstances. Even with dubious rainfall the average family of six, following the mulching to the full and fulfilling all the other requirements, obtained enough food for almost 40 weeks on a single plot of 39m by 16m and those with something close to normal rainfall basically a year’s supply of grain.
The Government, through the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development then made the decision to go all out, with mass introduction of the concept and tying this to the dramatic upgrade of existing Presidential Inputs schemes that had been chugging along with varying success.
For the 2020-21 season a number of critical decisions were made, besides going for Pfumvudza/Intwasa. These did require the sort of energy the Second Republic was putting in, concentrating on action not words.
First Agritex, the department within the ministry that was to take the main operational role, was built up to something far closer what it needed to be and its staff ready to show the farmers how Pfumvudza/Intwasa worked and how to prepare plots. Then the mass training started. However brilliant an idea is, it is not much use if no one knows how to use it.
At the same time the Presidential Inputs schemes were overhauled. With the Government finances sorted out in the first year or two of the Second Republic there was now cash in the Treasury, all carefully budgeted, to buy the seed and fertiliser and buy it in time so the farmers had it in time. This appears obvious, but had not been as common as it should have been in the past.
At the same time the anti-corruption drive was picking up steam so there was little opportunity to defraud the system, and those who tried were soon discussing this with a magistrate. Then came the critical decision. The free inputs were reserved for those who joined the programme.
The experts were so sure that this ensured a decent harvest plus value for money for the taxpayers who were funding the programme that the Government stuck to its guns.
This meant that the farmers who wanted free inputs had to go on a simple training course, arranged near their homes, and then have their plots prepared and the large quantity of mulch was gathered and ready. An Agritex officer needed to confirm this by actually visiting the farm and looking. That also cut out most potential corruption and ensured the land was properly prepared before the clouds gathered.
Then with its newly won efficiency the Government through its operational ministry had enough inputs ready and waiting at depots. Then came the test. More than 1 million families, who a year before had never heard of the new system, let alone practised it, had been persuaded to follow advice and use it. And they flourished. The good season helped of course, and it was pleasant that the heavens co-operated.
Along with the other Government schemes, like the existing, but now far better administrated Command Agriculture for the large commercial farmers, Zimbabwe jumped into summer grain self-sufficiency with a useful bit left over if the next season was less wonderful when it came to rain.
Last season those standing back rushed to join. When you see your neighbour eating well and flashing cash from sales while you, for the same amount of work, are just coping the advantages seem obvious. The indifferent rainfall, and especially the long mid-season dry spell, confirmed Pfumvudza/Intwasa as the way forward. Yields did come down, but most Pfumvudza/Intwasa farmers had a reasonable harvest and Zimbabwe, with its carryover stocks, enough food.
This coming season builds on those successes. Around 3 million families are now preparing their farms; the experts have figured out that different packages are required in each area. And urban farmers are being targeted. These just have room for a single small plot, but the necessary small packages are being readied for 500 000 to add to the 3 million with farms.
The rural farmers have now found that plots can be recycled, with just modest effort to bring the holes back into shape, so more families are adding to their plots, and up to five plots will receive free inputs for grains and oil seeds, while cotton can take up some more as that crop is finally organised better.
Pfumvudza/Intwasa has now shown its advantages. Zimbabwe is self-sufficient in grain. Most families do not need food aid, so cash for that can be spent on boosting production instead. And critically and most importantly Pfumvudza/Intwasa is spreading wealth.
Economic and productive growth has not been concentrated in a few hands while most people remain in poverty. Instead this growth is being driven by getting millions of families into commercial levels of production. We want a middle-income country and that means a middle-income population, not a few rich and lots of poor.
We have learned a lot. The first two main seasons were one good and one indifferent, so we can refine the packs. We can add more oil seed and legumes as farmers progress. Now we are starting with basic mechanisation, mainly for those living with physical disability or old age at first, but showing the way forward.
We have a sustainable farming system, created by applying research and some sound administration to the labour of our farmers, that can produce our food, provide ever more raw material for industry and spread the new wealth widely. Pfumvudza/Intwasa works.
