CROPS ASSOCIATION
REPORT TO CONGRESS 2009
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to this our 7th Annual General Meeting of the Zimbabwe Crop Producers’ Association. I do hope that this new format of a combined Commodity Associations meeting at a single venue meets with your approval. THE PAST CROPPING SEASON By and large the past season was a very good season as far as rainfall and climate were concerned. The rains came a little late to start with and seemed to come in waves that gave wet and dry spells which was ideal for crop production, generally never being too wet or too dry and most of the cropping areas reached 1000 mm plus of rain. The season finished strongly leaving most dams full and good residual soil moisture to facilitate easier land prep for those fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of it. Broadly speaking row crop yields were considerably better than last year due to the extended rainy season and a marked reduction in crop diseases. It is just such a pity that as a country we were not able to take full advantage of this. Of course the season was not without its many very serious problems, mostly man made, that have made this past season a most challenging one indeed. As a prerequisite to any successful agricultural season, good planning and timely on farm placement of inputs is essential. Taking into consideration an aging fleet of equipment coupled with scarce inputs of fertilizer and seed, the season was extremely difficult to start with. Financial facilities through banks had all but collapsed and the only viable borrowings for our sector were through the Reserve Bank’s ASPEF loan facility. This was much talked about but much more difficult to access as the country’s economy heaved under hyperinflation. These financial scenarios created extremely difficult choices for members in our sector to make. On the one hand it was imperative to access money for cropping, or use what little resources farmers had to put into the soil in the face of more land aggressions and disruptions. Our electricity system continued to be plagued by long power outages from cable theft to load shedding. To many of our members, ZESA owes a large thank you as our members continue to be at the forefront in most rural areas, supplying transport and general help to keep the system going, to an extent where certain areas paid ZESA technicians over and above their monthly salaries, just to keep them in the country and to keep the electricity supply working. In September 2008, the Global Agreement between our two main Political parties was signed and an air of expectation and promise of better things to come filled the media. For us as farmers, we hoped that this would usher in a new era for agriculture, doing away with the past methods of chaotic land reform and replace it with a production orientated programme. But alas, prosecutions of farmers still on their farms got into top gear, using the infamous amendment 16(B)2 of the constitution to ratchet up the pressure on productive farmers for political agendas. As though the above scenario wasn’t enough of a challenge, the economy inevitably dollarised into a stable hard currency at the peak of a global recession resulting in world wide low commodity prices. At our last congress, our previous Chairman Dennis Lapham, quoted import parity price of US$340/tonne for maize, US$680/tonne for soyas and US$580/tonne for wheat. This selling season has seen farmers trying to achieve US$250/tonne for maize and US$300/tonne for soyas, with very few buyers in the market and very little finance for purchasing. This has led to extreme cash flow problems and has put farming businesses in a very precarious position. ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES Since the last AGM we have seen a major change in our staffing with the retirement of George Hutchinson. George left us having given farmers way over 20 year’s service and was a fountain of information on soyas and ground nuts in particular. I thank him on behalf of this association for his dedication and wish him well in his retirement. Dr Clive Levy was asked to take up the reigns and run the association, along with Pam Cooper our secretary until a suitable replacement for George is found. Dr Levy has also been asked to oversee and conduct research on soya bean diseases across our boarders, putting pressure on us to find a crops association manager as soon as possible. In this regard, we have had a number of people interested in the post and we hope to appoint someone soon. Arising from last years AGM the committee has been preoccupied with and deliberated at length on the future of the association, and in my view the dilemma was created from two main reasons. Firstly we were not getting in enough income from levies and investments to sustain the association, and secondly we have been running out of members due to continued evictions from the land reform program. Thankfully, due to the vision and access of an EU support programme, entered into by the CFU, I do believe that in the short term we have solved the first problem. Our financial requirement now comes through the CFU. This is not a comfortable position for CFU or for the Association but I believe it is our intention and our duty to become self sufficient again in the future. The second reason is a more difficult one to overcome and with a continual diminishing number of members, it begs the question “what and for whom do we need an Association?” To this I would submit that while there are still farmers and agriculture there will be need for an Association. It is abundantly clear that in the environment we find ourselves today, without an associated voice we will have no voice at all, and without a voice we will be taken advantage of by all and sundry and become insignificant. An Association is still significant ladies and gentlemen. As an Association we are still invited to the Ministry of Agriculture to discuss the imports and exports of certain commodities that affect our farmers, like “cheap chicken” and sub-standard beef. To lobby for exports of soya beans and meal because of low domestic prices. To lobby for crop financing and inputs programs. Like adding the crop farmer’s voice to the CFU council just to name a few. I look forward to your views on this subject in open debate. Moving to the current winter crop, the Association has once again negotiated a favourable insurance scheme with Heritage Insurance. To date it is restricted to those farmers growing barley for National Breweries simply because of our inability to ensure the collection of premiums from wheat producers. However, we will be happy to accommodate wheat producers should we be satisfied with premium payments. I need to also make mention of the EU fertilizer deal that was made available to farmers last year through the Association. Having not benefited from the program myself I am not in a good position to comment, but from a number of members that I spoke to that did access the fertilizer it appears there were many problems. One of the main problems that I heard of was pricing. This problem I believe arose for a number of reasons. Although international prices were much higher than the asking price of this fertilizer at that time, beneficiaries of the ‘almost free’ fertilizer from GMB’s ‘Maguta’ program were onward selling the commodity to anyone at a cheaper price instead of using it themselves. Then once the prices had been set by us and the program started, international fertilizer prices started to drop as a result of the Global Recession making this deal look expensive. This left a bitter taste with some members, thinking we had ‘ripped them off’. I hope any such future program will be much smoother, but I can assure you ladies and gentlemen that our only motive was to try and provide a service to our members and that’s the bottom line. To end off this report, I would like to give my thanks to my Vice Chairman Angus Guthrie who has stood in at a number of meetings for me at short notice. Angus also sits on the ART Farm board representing the crops Association, and I thank him for his commitment. To the members of my committee I thank you all for taking the time to still support the Association.To Clive and Pam, our members of staff thank you for keeping the Association going and on the map. To the President of CFU, Trevor Gifford, Vice Presidents Deon Theron and Charlie Taffs and Director Hendrik Olivier and his small but motivated compliment of staff. Thank you for your continued support and leadership in these most challenging times. Your hard work is admirable and most appreciated Thank you Colin B Cloete(Chairman)08 July 2009