via Gloomy farming season beckons – NewsDay Zimbabwe October 20, 2014

THE summer cropping season is just a few days away, but indications on the ground paint a gloomy picture on the state of farmers’ preparedness.

A random survey in the countryside indicates that most farmers are waiting, with bated breath, for government to urgently provide seed, fertiliser and draught power; or else they will just watch soon as rains start pouring.

Most communal and newly-resettled farmers still do not have these inputs and neither do they have the means, at this last minute, to self-source.

While the idea of doling out free inputs appeared noble at first as it provided the farmers with the much-needed springboard to enter viable commercial crop farming with a bang, the system now seems to have created a generation of dependants.

The Zanu PF government has, over the years, created this culture of doling out free inputs each farming season as part of its populist policies, especially when elections are beckoning.

Unfortunately, the strategy has caused farmers to fail to appreciate that farming is a business which is grown through savings and planning for the next supply of inputs.

The situation looks even dire now considering that Treasury is heavily depleted and struggling to meet its basic obligations.

The crisis is further compounded by the fact that instead of concentrating on their core governance business, most government ministers and officials have their eyes off the proverbial plough as they fight to save their political skins at the forthcoming congress.

So, it won’t be surprising that when the first raindrops come down, we will just watch and marvel while they drain away.

We brag that we are an agro-based economy, but we hardly devout much time to making sure the sector is well resourced and managed.

For the agricultural sector to turn around and bring back the country’s “breadbasket” tag, farmers need to be trained to look at farming as a serious business enterprise.

Gone are the days of looking at farming as a pastime or just for subsistence.

It’s not enough to have two ministries of agriculture. We need to equip agricultural extension workers to enable them to reach to the ground and train farmers to turn their activities into commercial entities regardless of the size of the land.

We are likely to remain a basket case as long as the extension officers are poorly resourced and demoralised with Agriculture minister Joseph Made doing aerial crop assessments and rushing to declare “bumper harvests”.

We will remain perennial food beggars despite the abundant human resource and land as long as we believe farmers need subsidies or “grain loan schemes” each and every cropping season.

Giving out grain loans is a good idea, but it is again creating a generation of cheats as there are no follow-and-recovery programmes to ensure the scheme revolves and operates sustainably.