Zim faces bleak farming season
http://www.financialgazette.co.zw/
Friday, 06 January 2012 16:16
Shame Makoshori, Farming Reporter
ZIMBABWE should brace for yet another poor agricultural season triggered
largely by an unpredictable rain pattern partnered with lack of funding,
experts warned this week.
They warned that farmers would battle to acquire fertilisers and chemicals
due to the absence of bank financing as well as Official Development
Assistance (ODA).
The experts painted a bleak picture of the sector, buttressing fears by
farmers unions that cash-strapped banks, under political pressure to fund
agriculture, were becoming increasingly jittery to extend loans to a sector
that has registered unsustainable defaults.
In November, Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, who projected that the sector
would grow by 11,6 percent in 2012, said government would bankroll
agriculture to the tune of US$226 million in 2012, out of the US$2,5 billion
the sector requires.
His budget proposal triggered fears of yet another extremely poor 2011/2012
farming season.
Takunda Mugaga, senior researcher at the Harare-based Econometer Global
Capital, said this week agriculture, once the backbone of the country’s
economy, would continue to sing the blues unless there was urgent
intervention from the private sector.
“You don’t need a budget to fund agriculture in Zimbabwe; you need a good
farmer with a good reputation to approach banks for loans,” Mugaga said.
“We need funding through official development assistance. If you look at
Malawi, its agricultural sector grew tremendously through ODA. Once they had
a diplomatic standoff with London last year, ₤500 000 were withdrawn.
Malawi is now facing hunger and fuel shortages. We are funding something
whose problems have proved to be more than just money. Agriculture is a
political hotbed,” Mugaga told The Farming Gazette.
According to the Comm-ercial Farmers Union (CFU), only US$350 million is
expected to flow into agriculture this season.
This translates to a deficit of about US$2,2 billion.
That means more than 50 percent of the country’s cash strapped farmers would
have to bankroll their operations.
“Donors have cut funding by 75 percent because they see Zimbabwe’s problems
not as a result of natural problems like drought, but policy,” said
Commercial Farmers of Zimbabwe president, Charles Taffs.
Problems in bridging the huge funding gap have been compounded by the fact
that local banks say high default rates of up to 83 percent in 2011 will not
motivate them to continue pumping dead capital into an industry that is
difficult to policy.
A poor agricultural season will mean government, whose officials
unsuccessfully traversed the globe at the formation of the inclusive
government in 2009 to mobile US$10 billion to help repair a frail economy
that was badly hit by a decade of hyperinflation and capital flight, would
once again be forced to import grain.
This at a time when its US$4 billion 2012 bud-get is projected to commit 80
percent, or US$3,2 billion towards recurrent expenditure such as paying the
cou-ntry’s 236 000 ci-vil service.
New challen-ges have eme-rged in Zimba-bwe, and across the globe.
Rainfall seasons have become erratic and unpredictable.
This season, rains came late.
Unlike previous seasons, far-mers were still planting maize this week, a
time when traditionally, the bulk of the crop would be moving towards
tussling.
Lack of activity in such national institutions as the Agricultural and Rural
Deve-lopment Autho-rity (ARDA) and the Grain Mark-eting Board (GMB) could
also worsen the situation, the analysts said.
“The absence of ARDA has a strong bearing on the performance of
agriculture,” said another analyst.
Blaming the late rains, government said last week Zimbabwe had reported a
significant fall in the hectarage of maize planted to 247 000 by Tuesday,
from 380 000 hectares during the same period last year.
The hectarage of planted cotton declined by about 50 percent.
About 45 000 hectares had been planted last week, from 107 000 hectares
during the same period last year.
Once again, government failed to provide promised inputs on time.
The bulk of peasant farmers are struggling to access the inputs this week.