The Sunday Mail
WATER is indeed life, and this year we had a lot of it, which means more life.
You definitely need to be in the village to appreciate this unimpeachable truth, particularly this year.
The abundant rains are slowly translating into rich pickings for farmers.
It has been quite a long time since Bishop Lazi saw maize crops sagging with multiple anaconda-sized cobs, including roundnuts and groundnuts the size of tumours, as is the case this year.
It is a welcome relief for farmers, especially after two successive drought-plagued cropping seasons.
To put this into perspective, the 2018/2019 drought was actually the worst to affect the region since 1979.
However, sandwiched between these two weather-related calamities was also Cyclone Idai in March 2019, which the United Nations classified as the worst disaster ever to strike the southern hemisphere.
Clearly, it has been a horrible three years for farmers.
Bountiful harvests, therefore, mean bulging granaries and fat pockets for ordinary wananchi in the village.
Instead of paying maize and soyabean farmers from as far afield as Mexico and Argentina, the money will finally be accruing to our hardworking local farmers.
The windfall might be as much as $60 billion — more than half a billion US dollars — if grain harvests climb to between the forecast 2,5 million and 2,8 million tonnes.
A relatively stable Zimbabwe dollar will also be immeasurably rewarding.
And if maize output surpasses two million tonnes this year, it would be the third time this would have happened since the land reform programme began at the turn of the millennium.
With the way the economy has been rigged, where capital controls have heavily disincentivised unnecessary imports, the expected rise in demand and consumption of local goods — which now dominate local shop-shelves — from cash-flush local farmers, will naturally enable local industries to maintain the positive momentum that began last year.
The multiplier effect of rising aggregate demand, especially buoyed by a relatively stable local currency, will be immense for our agro-based economy.
Little wonder local companies are now bullish to the extent that they expect capacity utilisation to rise to 61 percent.
Zimbabwe continues to be an enigma to the world!
Although cynics and pundits thought the country’s economy would precipitously decline owing to disruptions and the fallout caused by the coronavirus, production in the manufacturing sector actually grew by 11 percentage points to 47 percent in 2020.
Incredible!
Doubling down
A good harvest cannot be more soothing for the Government, which has had to dig deep into its pocket every year to fork out close to US$800 million to import food and cash crops that can ordinarily be produced here.
The significant savings will give policy-makers enough legroom and headroom to support the value of the local currency and channel more resources to ongoing developmental projects.
We, however, do not have time to rest.
Matthew 25, especially “The Parable of the Bags of Gold”, is instructive.
For those who are not in the know, the parable simply tells the story of three servants who were entrusted with eight bags of gold by their master, who had decided to embark on a long journey.
One servant got five bags of gold, while the other two got two bags and one bag respectively.
The two wise servants who got the bulk of the gold multiplied their bags, while the stupid and foolish servant who got one bag “dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s gold”.
When the master eventually returned, he was naturally elated by the productive servants and chafed by the unimaginative imbecile.
Matthew 25: 26-30 says;
“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
“‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has 10 bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
In our case, it means while we cheer a very productive season, we also need to double down on ongoing efforts to shift from rain-fed agriculture, as climate change is still lurking.
Bishop Lazarus told you of the commendable progress made by Maka Irrigation — which recently installed a 24-hectare sprinkler irrigation system at Nyamutsahuni Irrigation Scheme in Mutoko, Mashonaland East — in resuscitating some of these critical schemes.
But, there is a need to maniacally and aggressively pursue the 2021 National Accelerated Irrigation Rehabilitation and Development Programme to ensure that we meet the envisaged target of putting more than 350 000 hectares under irrigation within the next three years.
This will ultimately guarantee and underwrite the country’s food security.
There is still so much to do.
Imagine that in the past 60 years, we have struggled to produce more than three million tonnes of maize despite a growing population, inherently favourable climatic conditions and capacity to do so.
The highest output over the past six decades has been the 2,95 million tonnes produced in 1984 — which is 37 years ago.
Emerging signs
While Bishop Lazi is encouraged by the potential of a recovering agricultural sector to anchor economic stability going forward, he is more than excited by how the mining sector is shaping up.
It is only that mining projects, especially greenfield investments, are not only capital intensive, but they have a long gestation period as well, which means they take time to materialise.
But signs of progress are now emerging.
In two months’ time, ED will be presiding over the groundbreaking ceremony of an iron ore mine and a carbon steel plant in Mwanesi, Mvuma.
Not many quite appreciate the potential of this US$1 billion project, whose scope is expected to grow to between US$5 billion to US$10 billion over time.
Tsingshan — the investor — is currently the largest steel producer in the world and has been quietly building its local operations from the ground up since signing a MoU with the Government on April 24, 2019.
Once completed, the plant will produce two million tonnes of steel — one million tonnes will be carbon steel, while the remainder will be stainless steel.
The pillars of this massive project are already in place.
Dinson Colliery, the coal-mining subsidiary of Tsingshan, is in the process of building a 300 000-tonne coke oven battery, while Afrochine, the ferrochrome unit, has already increased the number of furnaces at its plant in Selous to five.
Iron ore deposits at Mwanesi are estimated to be 30 billion tonnes, which gives you a sense of how grand the scope and scale of these integrated projects.
Their impact to the economy will be immense.
Not only will the steel plant stop the country from haemorrhaging close to US$1 billion annually through imports, but it will also be able to use the locally produced product for local consumption, particularly for the envisaged industrialisation and modernisation drive.
You only need to imagine the impact Ziscosteel had on the local economy to fully appreciate this new investment by Tsingshan.
Well, the Bishop was recently unpleasantly surprised by some supposedly senior scribes who boldly asserted that ED had dismally failed to attract investment to Zimbabwe.
Don’t they see the huge coke oven batteries and power projects that are underway in Hwange by companies such as Dinson, Southern Mining, Jinan, ZhongXin Coking Company (ZZCC), ZZEE, Zambezi Gas and Makomo?
Don’t they see the activities by Alrosa — the largest diamond producer in the world — in Malipati and Tsholotsho?
Don’t they see the millions that are being poured into new platinum mining operations by Great Dyke Investments?
Don’t they see the activities by Karo Resources in Mashonaland West?
The list is endless.
By all accounts, Alrosa, Tsingshan and Karo are not Mickey Mouse companies — these are giants that are being mistaken for pygmies.
Well, come to think of it, it is hardly surprising that some scribes, who have since morphed into blind activists of hopelessly failed politicians, are oblivious of these major developments happening all around them.
Sadly, there have become blunt and obliging tools of politically crazed activists.
Rest assured, the Government’s grand economic plan is slowly coming together.
As Bishop Lazi said before, while cynics and sceptics talk, ED works.
Bishop out!
