When everything seems to rally against 2018/2019 farming season

THE 2018/2019 farming calendar will retreat into the annals of history as that season in which everything — both natural and human controlled  seemed to conspire against agricultural production. It all started with the disquieting news of a normal to below normal rainfall season forecast laced with the dreadful El Nino phenomenon, which is no stranger to Zimbabwean agriculture.

The mere mention of its name generates anxious moments among most farming enthusiasts after successfully soiling their ambitions in the not-too-distant past.

The rainfall forecast generated an avalanche of reactions from different stakeholders in all value chains that tap into agriculture and numerous campaigns were made to educate farmers on how they could mitigate the effects of the impending natural drawback.

Civic organisations, Government, agricultural scientists and a host of other players took turns to impress on farmers why it was necessary to adopt drought-tolerant crop varieties, the need to adopt short-season varieties and most importantly to stagger the planting dates since there were reportedly strong chances of rains coming at some point in the course of the season. The argument for this trickery was that if one batch of crop was wiped out by hostile weather, then there could  be chances of another batch surviving and becoming the saviour for many people.

And this happened in some places.

In Mhondoro, for instance, some farmers who had an early crop managed to salvage decent yields, while the late planted crops were either scorched by the blistering sun or died a slow death after the rains just nursed them to some point and left.

In Manicaland, parts of Mashonaland East and Masvingo, some crops had survived the lengthy dry spells, giving the farmers hopes of getting decent yields even during a difficult season and then Cyclone Idai came along and washed everything in its path away. Idai even destroyed crops like bananas that naturally do not easily feel the heat of the dry weather, leaving thousands of families food insecure and needing urgent food assistance.

But this was not all. Farmers had to contend with the marauding fall armyworm that would wipe fields clean of any green matter within days if not controlled. To make matters worse, the pest was very difficult to eradicate despite the numerous interventions from various sectors of the economy and concerned parties. While all this was happening, cattle farmers in the Goromonzi, Maronadera, Chikomba, Wedza, Buhera, Chivhu, Gutu, Chegutu, Centenary, Bindura and Shamva districts were battling to save their cattle from what they described as a mysterious disease that left many of them without even a single beast after the cattle either died or the farmers quickly sold them, usually  for as little as RTGS$40 or RTGS$50 just to get something.

Unscrupulous dealers pounced on the chance to rip off the farmers of their most treasured asset both in terms of commercial and sentimental value by offering “take or leave” prices that saw the desperate farmers accepting the peanuts the buyers would offer. The normal trading trend in which the seller pegs a price and the buyer either takes or leave or negotiates was reversed overnight and buyers were the ones setting prices.

It later turned out, however, that the mysterious disease was nothing but January disease (Theileriosis) and Redwater that are caused by ticks and are still haunting farmers even to this day, way past the month of January during which they are usually prevalent if not controlled.

Tick-borne diseases left at least 15 000 head of cattle dead. And just when the cattle situation seemed to be abating, tobacco farmers were taking their first deliveries to the auction floors where the US$4, 50 per kilogramme price set on the first day of the marketing season has only been breached by a mere 15 cents even after the season has been rolling for some time and the best leaf grades are the ones being delivered. At the contract floors, the highest price has remained stagnant too at US$5, 80 and it seems it may never beat last season’s US$6,25 per kilogramme that was netted during the corresponding period.

The prices at the tobacco floors have left many farmers pondering whether to continue producing the crop or switch to maize whose new producer price has become very attractive barring the intervention of the unstable economic forces currently at play in the country.

It was also a season in which a new payment was announced just a few days before the opening of the season, which saw many producers battling to come to terms with the new requirements.

The farmers briefly suspended deliveries and sales. They did not understand how the half forex and half RTGS system would work and all believed the system was designed to rip them off and it had to take numerous efforts including visits to the floors by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement to convince them that there was no chicanery to rob them and start delivering tobacco and selling.

It also took the schools’ opening pressures to force many of the farmers out of their resolve to hold on to their tobacco.

This marketing season also saw merchants suspending operations demanding Government to reconsider the retention percentage, which would allow the merchants to take away 70 percent of the money they made and leave 30 percent in the country. Their argument was that they borrowed 100 percent when they came to buy the golden leaf, so going and leaving a chunk of their earnings would see them failing to repay their loans back home.

The merchants too have also been fingered in a conspiracy to erect impregnable price ceilings that will effectively leave the farmers poorer at the end of the marketing season. But while all this was happening, the economy’s number one enemy, inflation, was setting in and everything started changing. Prices of basic farming inputs and everything else instantly shot up, the dollar became very elusive, even on the parallel market and so did the local RTGS, which left farmers anxious and uncertain if they would ever get payments for this year’s tobacco crop or not. Now the winter wheat season is upon and power cuts have suddenly surged despite claims by the power utility Zesa that it would be gentler with the farmers than everyone else. Some wheat farmers have since indicated that they were not being spared from the load shedding currently being done by Zesa.

On the other hand, dam water levels have also not helped the situation as most farmers became reluctant to grow wheat, citing possible water shortages as their reason. The hectarage of wheat will inevitably be low this season, further denting the push to reduce the country’s huge import bill being generated by wheat supplements from outside our borders.

The cotton season, which in recent years had been plagued with price wars, just got underway and the nation is watching with anxiety to see how things on the pricing side will turn out now that Government has tasked Cottco to run the show and save the farmers and ultimately the cotton industry.