Farai Mabeza, Senior Staff Writer 
THE Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) says crop production in the country has been hit by rising costs, although this year’s figures are still expected to be in positive territory.
Zimbabwe last year recorded impressive production for some of its major crops including maize and wheat, which is expected to continue this year but farmers say costs in both the local currency and the US$ have become a major hindrance to their activities.
“The major factors affecting production are the cost of inputs. The costs are just too high. The prices are increasing in both currencies, the US$ and the local currency prices are continually increasing. This is making things difficult for farmers.
“Because of the inflationary environment, wages for employees are also going up again and again. This is a cause for concern and to add to that are the power interruptions,” CFU chief economist Antonnette Chingwe told The Financial Gazette this week.
Irrigation is a key enabler for many commercial farmers but electricity unavailability has compromised production.
“The level of load shedding is too high and it’s affecting farmers, particularly those that need supplementary irrigation for their crops. It has compromised their work and this will largely affect production,” Chingwe said.
This comes amid a concerted push by the government to boost agriculture production under the Agriculture Recovery Plan (2020-2023). The plan was developed to engender the envisaged agricultural transformation agenda aimed at six outcomes: food security, import substitution, diversified exports, value addition, employment, and improved incomes and standards of living.
Last year’s production was fuelled by a highly-favourable rainy season and a plethora of government and private sector-backed programmes.
The country achieved wheat self-sufficiency for the first time in 16 years. These developments have put the country on track to surpass 2025 growth targets after a 34 percent rise during the 2020/21 season, against a mark of 11-12 percent.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union secretary-general Paul Zakariya recently noted the bottlenecks which he said still needed to be addressed despite the achievements from last season.
“The year was relatively successful. Agriculture scored big, with record increased throughput. Farmers performed and delivered to the markets. The only drawback was that farmers lost a lot of value to delays in payments as well as rising inflation,” Zakariya told The Financial Gazette as he summed up the 2020/21 season.
“With increased production, figures for most commodities surpassing the pre-2000 era, the country is on an economic recovery path under-girded by increased production and productivity as well as import substitution strategies. With that, there will be a need to ensure inclusive growth where farmers receive fair value for what they produce.”
Zakariya stressed that going forward, inclusive planning should take on board and recognise the capacity of agro-processors.
“Apart from direct consumption of some of the primary products by citizens, agro-processors do play an important role in ensuring that the economy expands as industries emerge, employment is created and wealth is evenly distributed.
“The capacity of agro-processors can inform the extent to which agricultural production can be taken. Markets inform production,” he said. newsdesk@fingaz.co.zw
