ARAC UPDATE No. 29
24 September 2010
Dear Farmer,
What do we mean by recovery? Put simply, the restoration of a desirable sustainable environment for the economic and social advancement of the people of Zimbabwe.
Just as Donkey repeatedly asks in the cartoon comedy “Shrek”, we also ask: “Are we there yet?” The answer is “NO!”
The question means different things to different people and it seems last week’s send out has aroused a number of opinions and queries in this regard. Amongst these are attitudes towards farmers on the ground who contribute to the country’s heralded recovery; perhaps their input should be looked at more in terms of disaster mitigation. Their impact is likely to remain relatively small so long as the essential financial resources required to drive economic activity remain scarce. In 2000, commercial agriculture borrowed +-1.87 billion US dollars for production, currently there are less than 100 million devalued US dollars available for inputs for agriculture through the formal financial sector, hardly the requisite requirements of a vibrant recovering industry! The purported rebound of the tobacco sector to around 121 million kilograms this season seems questionable. This would appear to be a significant over statement of production for a number of reasons; however we are unlikely to see an official revision of the figure. On the maize front the declared production of 1.4 million tonnes against a national requirement of around 1.8 million tonnes has done little to stem the average monthly import of around 100 thousand tonnes.
In reality, production deficits and the need to import essential commodities will remain a reality until fundamental issues are dealt with. This season’s domestic wheat production is a case in point, we are unlikely to produce more than a tenth of what we did in 2000.What this means is that current levels of production, which in some instances show marginal improvement over last year’s level, hardly constitute recovery. There may be some few farmers who have managed to continue farming throughout the period when the bulk of us have experienced eviction, for most this remains a highly stressful and tenuous existence. For most of us the trauma and sense of outrage at our treatment remains pretty close to the surface. We demand compensation or restitution and find it difficult to frame our needs in other terms or see these losses in the context of the economic calamity that has struck most citizens. There remain many young men who would love to farm and who would dearly like to be a part of a recovery, for the majority this remains a dream as policies of exclusion deny them the rights all would experience in a recovered Zimbabwe.
Resolution to the land question remains a fundamental obstacle to this. We believe only when significant attention is paid to resolving the outstanding issue of compensation and an end to discrimination, will significant recovery become possible. Traditionally most agricultural lending was based on the track record of skilled farmers and secured on the legal respect for property rights. The supposed empowerment of new farmers has been limited, for although there has been a massive shift in access to land, this has not been accompanied by a transfer of secure tenure or skills. The upheaval has indeed caused much suffering in our constituency and also for well over a million farm workers and their families. The country will only recover when it finds space to engage its entire skilled people and this includes both experienced farmers and farm workers.
The perception that the constant flow of funds from donor countries is there to support the recovery is misleading. For the most part donor support has been injected to avoid further decline. This is certainly the case in the health and education sector. With regard to agriculture most support focuses on the need to provide inputs and extension to households that fall outside the areas where land occupation is a cause of conflict. Most foreign governments engage with Zimbabwe under less than satisfactory conditions. They remain constant in their desire to see the issues of governance restored to an acceptable level to permit the full re integration of Zimbabwe into the family of nations. They are looking for a win-win for the people of this country and have promised significant support for the recovery of the country when this happens. For our constituency it is important to focus our need for compensation in this context and find a way that enables the restoration of rights regarding citizenship and property to deliver empowerment to all farmers through fair access or transfer supported by legal transparent mechanisms that fulfill the requirements of justice. The challenges ahead are significant and we need your support and commitment to find a satisfactory outcome for us all. We need all 4500 farmers lobbying with a common theme that attracts the right attention.
Please feel free to contact us at our ARAC offices for information on re-joining and becoming a part of our ‘team’ to take this forward.
Regards
BEN PURCELL GILPIN
MANAGER
ARAC – Agricultural Recovery & Compensation
COMMERCIAL FARMERS’ UNION OF ZIMBABWE
Tel: +263 4 309800-19 ext 249
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