Dr Gift Mugano
Zimbabwe launched command agriculture which aims to harvest two million tonnes of maize. A lot has been said about the programme with some quarters labelling it a total failure.However, there seem to be a fundamental void left by the critics is the economics of command agriculture. I must admit that under the normal circumstances we don’t need command agriculture.
Under the normal environment, both the business environment should be supportive and markets must be efficient. We are not in normal situation. We need Command Agriculture to join broken market linkages and bring military efficiency in addressing the business environment.
Command Agriculture in Sink with ZIM ASSET and Ten Point Plan The Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio–Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) cluster on food nutrition seeks to bring back the Zimbabwe’s bread basket status.
To buttress the Zim-Asset, His Excellency, President Robert Mugabe in August 2015 in his state of the nation address (SONA) he announced the ten-point plan to which he called for the need to revitalise agriculture as one of the ten areas Government must focus on in expediting the implementation of Zim-Asset.
From a policy implementation perspective, it therefore makes economic sense to have programmes like Command Agriculture as a strategy to help the country to be self – sufficient in food.
Impact on trade
With Command Agriculture, Zimbabwe can reduce its trade deficit significantly through imports cuts and export drive. Over the years, since land reform, Zimbabwe’s import basket was largely constituted with agricultural products ranging from maize, soya beans, chickens to apples.
At the same time, agricultural exports particularly horticulture products took a sharp dive.
This situation led to a self-sustaining trade deficit. The coming of Command Agriculture will help in cutting out maize imports and other up -coming products (which will be added into Command Agriculture).
Currently, the country is importing soya beans. This an unnecessary wastage of foreign exchange which can be used in the importation of critical factors of production such as equipment and machinery.
If soya bean is covered in the upcoming farming season we will certainly make significant savings on foreign exchange and easy pressure on monetary authorities.
Honestly, it is not fair to put pressure on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor and his team to fund nostro accounts for the importation of apples, onions, soya beans, maize, chicken, etc.
Our intellectual capacity and the quality of our human capital certainly need to be sincerely questioned.
Command Agriculture has resulted in revived discussion on the resuscitation of the horticulture and the establishment of the institutional frameworks together with supporting institutions which have been established to support the thrust for reinvigorating horticulture production and its export is good news.
The fact that this has drawn interests from the European Union makes the whole issue lekker!
Production enhancement
We all have agreed that lack of productivity is our root problem.There are so many ways of getting this economy get back to production levels of yester years. One secret why white commercial farmers were productive among other things was strong value chains which were established for a long a time.
These invisible value chains which saw banks, input suppliers and manufacturers flawlessly pre-financed production at the same time providing markets for the produce.
This set up was broken at the time of the land reform because the new farmer had no established relations with the banks, input suppliers and manufacturers.
Command Agriculture is just bringing back yester-years value chains into operations. Honourable Vice President Mnangagwa in one of his remarks he underscored that 2016 /17 Command Agriculture was funded by companies.
This is sweet news!
The secret behind the success of tobacco has been centred around the effective value chains around the tobacco. Still on tobacco, isn’t mind boggling that the nation come to a stand-still when the tobacco season starts?
Again, isn’t puzzling that crops rakes in around US$780 million annually in export earnings but we are clueless on other crops – we actually go to an extent of importing crops like soya beans.
Command Agriculture is coming in to help this economy address this anomaly.
Imagine if we trigger massive production of just 10 products which are either substituting imports or aimed at exports this economy will turn around in no time.
We can debut about how many products we can push through the same way tobacco has been successful but we cannot solely rely on tobacco. NO!
Command Agriculture Present Opportunity for Military Efficiency on Reforms
One constituency that I admire in this country is the military.
The Zimbabwean military has an uncompromised record of efficiency in everything it lays its hands on.
In fact, it is not just about delivery but it is about the attitude of the army. The self- belief and the one of a goal getter is what this economy need.
One of the impediments which has Zimbabwe’s production remaining low relates to absence of an enabling environment for business to tick.
It is my humble view that Government, in its endeavour to meet its set target now across a wide array of crops and even animals will come across these huddles and will undoubtedly use military efficiency to eliminate them.
One of the huddles, for example, in the maize sector is the issue of pricing.
Our current $390 per metric tonne is uncompetitive – it is one of the highest in the world.
This price is factoring in inefficiency.
This price clearly discourages effect role of players as it is well above the regional benchmark by far.
At the moment, Ministry of Finance has agreed to pay millers regional benchmark price but the rest of the players who uses maize as an input are getting it at $390 per tonne.
This is certainly affecting the competitiveness of the affected industries as their products are destined for local and foreign markets.
The question is how long will Minister Chinamasa be able to continue subsidising inefficiency?
His wallet is too small to sustain the subsidy. He will soon dump the subsidy and opt for market price.
This will open room for more players to support the growing of maize.
At the moment, in as much as a number of players joined Government on the inaugural Command Agriculture, there is certainly scope for more to join especially manufacturers.
There is also a long-standing issue on security of tenure which has taken years to resolve.
Take for example in the dairy sector, one of the critical factors need to create a competitive dairy sector is security of tenure which will allow the farmer to produce own stock feed (at the farm).
I see military efficiency in dealing with this matter. Military efficiency in this matter is brought about by the fact that Government will be coming face to face with the real impediment coupled with the mood turn the fortune of the economy.
In conclusion, this country needs solutions.
Let us not criticise Command Agriculture for the sake of it. Rather, let us proffer solutions which help this country to move forward.
Together we make Zimbabwe great!
Dr Mugano is an Author and Expert in Trade, Investments and Development. He is a Research Associate at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and a Senior Lecturer at the Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University. Feedback: Email: [email protected] Cell: +263 772 541 209.