Gloomy outlook for 2015/2016 agriculture season
October 27, 2015 in Business
Zimbabwean farmers need about $2 billion for the 2015/2016 farming season, but the government is struggling to provide the funds, the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union (ZCFU) has said.
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
ZCFU president Wonder Chabikwa told NewsDay recently that farmers were ill-prepared for the current farming season due to lack of funding.
“It is supposed to be more advanced, but we are lagging behind due to funding. Some farmers are yet to be paid for what they sold from last season,” Chabikwa said. “We hope the banks will come to our rescue basing on the stock system instead of collateral. We would like a situation where they will use commodity as security.”
Chabikwa said farming inputs were enough, but the problem was unavailability of money on the farmer’s side.
“Nationally, for the season we need about $2 billion for the whole sector, that is, grain and livestock, to be able to maximise capacity utilisation,” he said.
Chabikwa said with the required funding in place, farmers could produce 1,7 million tonnes of grain.
“If we do that, we would have done well,” he said.
At a recent farmers’ indaba, Chabikwa said government should channel more funding into research and investment in sustainable energy sources as electricity costs in Zimbabwe were prohibitive for commercial farming. He said apart from high electricity costs, the power shortages were making farming a risky and expensive investment.
He revealed that by comparison, electricity costs in Zimbabwe were the highest in the Sadc region. According to Chabikwa, the cost of electricity in Zimbabwe is 14 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) compared to Zambia, which costs between three cents and four cents per kWh, while the regional average is 5,5 cents per kWh.
Zimbabwe, which is battling to recover from economic contraction, is struggling to finance its productive sectors in the absence of foreign direct investment and aid.
Agriculture — once the backbone of the Zimbabwean economy — was decimated during the fast-track land reform exercise which began in 2000.