Owen Gagare

ZIMBABWE faces a major humanitarian crisis with the Agricultural Technical and Extension Services (Agritex) and other farming organisations projecting a 1,5 million tonne maize deficit in the 2011/12 agricultural season. A survey by Agritex estimated that 247 000 hectares of maize was planted countrywide by December 31 last year, down from 379 993 in the previous farming season.

The development means Zimbabwe is only likely to harvest about 346 000 tonnes of maize against a consumption of two million tonnes, unless the crop planted this month does well -- which is highly unlikely according to farming organisations.

Zimbabwe produced about 1,5 million tonnes of maize in the 2010/11 season, marking a third consecutive annual increase, despite recording a deficit of about 500 000 tonnes which saw people in the country’s southern provinces of Masvingo and Matabeleland South and some parts of  Manicaland and Midlands requiring food aid.

More people are, however, likely to require food aid this agricultural season since projections show that harvests may decline by as much as 60%.
The hectarage under small grains, such as sorghum and millet, also declined from 136 131ha to 130 944ha, putting the country’s food security further at risk at a time neighbouring countries have stopped grain exports.

About 45 000ha of cotton had been planted by December 31, down from 107 727ha in the previous farming season while land planted with soya-beans went down from 13 674ha to 5 079ha.

Tobacco production is also set to go down after 39 393ha was planted, down from 43 545.

Farming organisations have attributed the decline in hectarage to a combination of factors, among them, the late onset of the rains, lack of agricultural support by the government and financial institutions as well as lack of security of tenure resulting in farmers failing to access private funds.

Commercial Farmers Union president Charles Taffs said the nation should brace itself for a big disaster this year.

“About 247 000ha had been planted by 31 December and using an average yield of 1,4 tonnes per hectare, we can expect to harvest about 346 000 tonnes. We consume two million tonnes, so how are we going to address the shortfall?” Taffs said.

“Fine, there has been a lot of subsidised seed going around in recent days, but we don’t expect much from maize planted after 15 December. It’s a disaster, because we are the worst prepared in 50 years.”

Taffs said the humanitarian situation was aggravated by the fact that South Africa was also importing maize and wheat, while Malawi was experiencing economic problems which have affected its agriculture resulting in the country suspending exports.

Zambia was expecting a reduced harvest and has stopped grain exports to build its reserves.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Donald Khumalo said the country was likely to have a deficit of about 1,5 million tonnes although he believed Agritex could have overestimated the hectarage put under crops.

“We have basically lost direction as a country and we are not approaching agriculture with the seriousness it deserves. Right now we are in January and the farmers are rushing to collect seed and fertiliser from the Grain Marketing Board depots. Why now, why not in October?” said Khumalo.

“We don’t expect those that are planting now to have meaningful harvests, unless they have irrigation.”

Khumalo said there was need for the government, donor community and financial institutions to work together to ensure productivity on farms.
“The donor community should support the black person on the land. There are people who are still mourning for loss of land, but we are saying let’s move on, let’s support the people who are on the land for the good of the country,” Khumalo said.

Paul Zakariya, Zimbabwe Farmers Union executive director, said: “Crop hectarage sharply declined in part due to the late onset of rains and the late disbursement of inputs to farmers. It is strange that at this time of the season GMB is still distributing inputs. Maize hectarage planted between November and December declined by about 50%, compared to the same period last season,

“This means yields will also go down sharply. Another factor that led to a reduction in hectarage is obviously the inadequate funding availed to farmers by government and other supporting stakeholders. As a result of the prevailing liquidity crunch, contracting firms have failed to generate sufficient resources required to fund the agricultural season which needs no less than US$2 billion to realise full potential.”

Most communal farmers failed to purchase inputs on time citing the failure by the GMB to pay them for the grain delivered during the last agricultural season.

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