Almot Maqolo, Staff Writer 
Zimbabwe’s farmers are no strangers to drought. In fact, it’s a recurring nightmare. The latest dry spell has devastated crops, leaving livestock parched and farmers desperate. Our staff reporter Almot Maqolo (AM) sat down with Paul Zachariya (PZ), executive director of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU), to get a grip on the crisis. Below are excerpts from the interview:
AM: What is the current state of agriculture in the country.
PZ: This just-ended season has been very tricky, with information that has not been very well communicated. Initially, it was indicated that we were going to have an El Nino-induced drought, but we lost certain aspects of the season, particularly the early rains that fell. Some farmers who planted with the October rains have a crop to talk about, yet some planted but lost. The majority of the farmers did not plant. With that, we lost a huge opportunity and it was coming from advice that was being given that the rains were not for planting.
The season progressed, but there was erratic rainfall in some areas and ultimately no rainfall at all in some areas, and the crop that had been established suffered from heat stress due to wilting. We have it on record that over 80 percent of the crop has been written off. Our livestock, particularly in the southern parts of the country (Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, Midlands, Masvingo, and Manicaland) has dried up, and some of the water bodies have also dried up. We are facilitating the movement of hay from Mashonaland East and Central to some parts of Masvingo and Matabeleland South.
Paul Zakariya
So, you can see that it is not a very pleasant situation at all. We also know that farmers have heeded calls from certain quarters to downsize their stock as measures to mitigate the challenges that we are facing at the moment. So it has been a mixed bag.
Our cotton has also not done very well. Cotton is normally very resilient to dry conditions, but we expect a very small crop out of the current season. Our tobacco has also been affected; of course, tobacco is either irrigated or dry land. So, you see that most of those coming out of the dry land are significantly reduced because of the issues to do with moisture stress.
AM: Of late, the government has been talking about upscaling the winter maize crop. How do you see this initiative mitigating the effects of droughts?
PZ: We have always had these interventions, especially during our lean years, as far back as the early 90s or late 80s. We had winter maize coming out of the Lowveld Chiredzi, Triangle Kwasine, and so on. But it is irrigated as well. The temperatures are not so high during the winter, though, because this maize will depend on the heat units that the crop receives. It is a measure that is necessary given the water bodies that we have down in the Lowveld and also the capacity to irrigate. All those fields must, out of necessity, be populated with maize.
I am sure organisations such as the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA), together with Agricultural Advisory Services, are working flat out. In terms of us being consultants, of course, we do consultations every week, actually with the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture. The farmers that are producing are also our members, so from both angles, we would know what is happening. It is a crop that is necessary to grow because of the situation that we are in. It is expensive because it is irrigated, but you are better off doing something than just sitting back and losing all that potential. The potential is there for winter maize to be produced. The benefits outweigh the costs.
AM: The country has been prone to droughts over the years. As ZFU, what are you doing to build resilience among farmers?
PZ: Yes, as ZFU since 2009, we have embarked on some pilot projects to try out some climate-proofing in agricultural production. We piloted in Manicaland and Mashonaland East three districts in each of the provinces and the results were used to replicate these efforts in other provinces. We were using a concept where young farmers’ school-based clubs will provide input and technical assistance in terms of training for climate-proofed agriculture, which is conservation farming, which includes mulching, moisture conservation, selection of the right varieties, and also the use of herbicides so that we remove the excess laborious interventions that are normally associated with farming.
Our young farmer’s clubs were then used as the springboard for adoption into the community. In those communities you see in this particular year, their crop may have been destroyed by the effects of the adverse weather, but they could testify to how resilient the crop was. In some cases, they are harvesting. When you go towards Mutorashanga around the Banket area, you will see that several farmers around that area are harvesting and expecting anything between six and eight tonnes per hectare, not under irrigation.
They took advantage of the early rains, which is part of the training in conservation agriculture. In that conservation agriculture project, we were together with the Foundations for Farming, who are the authors; they came up with and coined their product, “Pfumvudza”. The concept in the 2018–2019 season was then adopted by the government. This is also coming out of pilot projects that we initiated. So, it was adopted for nationwide implementation.
There are so many misconceptions that people who are not in agriculture will condemn Pfumvudza and think that this is a way of breaking the backs of old people and so on, not knowing that there are serious benefits that come out of practicing Pfumvudza. It is not just the painting that is done. It is also the conservation of moisture so that your crop can move from the beginning of a dry period to the end. The crop will still be standing. We are also providing weather information from the farmer organisations in association with the Meteorological Services Department (MSD).
We collect weather information and disseminate the information to appropriate farmer groups throughout the country. We have been doing so with the assistance of the World Bank; we call it the Farmer Advisory Weather Service, where our farmers receive real time weather information that they use. The only limitation with that is that sometimes the weather information is not as location-specific as it would like it to be.
But at least it gives a general understanding of the weather around a particular area. We are now piloting a new project on which we are working in a consortium with MSD and Wageningen University. The project is being implemented in Marondera, to begin with, and this is now a project that is going to bring location-specific weather information. So, once we get that right, we will then be looking at how we can promote the dissemination of location-specific weather information. So, we will be bringing in 15 weather stations that will be used in certain communities within Marondera districts. We are also bringing in moisture sensors so that our farmers are not guessing whether we should pant or not. So with a moisture sensor, you can tell if you are ready for planting or not. So, this is going to empower our farmers. With this type of backup and all these services, our smallholder farmers in particular will be able to be resilient in the face of climatic challenges.
AM: How is the access to credit for farmers in Zimbabwe?
PZ: There is an issue around that. Our smallholder farmers in particular, in the other category, are maybe enjoying near-ups; they could go to a bank because the money is expensive; maybe they also get support through contract farming arrangements because they can handle the risk. When it comes to smallholder farmers, we face a huge challenge, and that normally involves trust. They are normally not viewed as organised, and they are viewed as high-risk, especially with the climatic changes that we are experiencing with El Nino and flash floods.
So, when it comes to that, finance normally shies away from such categories of producers. We look at what used to happen for the smallholder sector; they used to be the Agriculture Finance Corporation (before Agribank), which had a window to support smallholder farmers. The window could provide capital expenditures for dams and other things, even buying a farm. You could get a loan through the AFC. That closed when Agribank was born and carried a small window for smallholder farmers for a short period, and then it was shut completely, leaving smallholder farmers to the mess of contractors who sometimes even the fleece of the farmers collect all the crop and never pay.
We are looking at farmer organizations, so you see, in all the provinces and districts, the ZFU has employed what we call farmer organizers. So those people who encourage organised farming bring the farmers together and build their capacity in terms of working and functioning in groups, and in those groups, they are then positioned to receive technical advice from agronomists and so on. But also be linked to markets and, to some extent, formalise and register as a cooperative company. That gives them the status of an entity—one that can sue and be sued. If you are in business and can keep records that can be audited, you can do your credit referencing.
So those are the things that are missing in the larger group of our smallholder farmers because there is no proper credit referencing. No risk mitigation can be anticipated. So you will see that without that, their chances of going to a financial institution to borrow directly may be limited. They may access finance through an intermediary, but the intermediary means a markup, which means the cost of money is more expensive, and eventually, it also means the farmers will not be making as much profit as they were supposed to. Insurance plays a major role in mitigating some of these risks, especially climate-related risks. So there is what we call area yield insurance, which is now being piloted together with AFC, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, and ourselves. We have piloted that in a few districts, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central, in the Midlands Province, and in Manicaland, where we have said, look, with these parameters, can we see how financial institutions can engage?
If the insurer is happy, cover is provided for the input supplier. The input supplier provides the inputs. The farmer produces. There is a guaranteed market. And when the market pays, the payment goes directly to a bank account. Okay, the bank account then makes sure that payments to the suppliers and so on are done, and then what remains belongs to the farm, so that is another way of, you know, building that type of capacity among smallholder farmers to access finance. But this is just a small aspect of it. Many other interventions are still required. Sometimes it is also talking to insurance companies to understand that the terrain has changed.
AM: Tell us more about how beneficial the local currency fuel facility is for farmers.
PZ: In most cases, our farmers receive their payments; whatever comes in time or on time is the local component. Therefore, the local component must be able to meet certain costs without converting. So we haven’t been experiencing as much of a challenge even before the introduction of the new currency. The only challenge that our farmers were experiencing with the local currency was the exchange rate. In other words, what I’m saying is that when you walk into a shop, there is a price for the product in US dollars as well as in ZWL.
And the same applies even now. But what happens behind those numbers is what is critical. Those numbers reflect that there is compliance in terms of the pricing of commodities. But when you do your calculations, this is where you see that there is a different rate that has been applied to this price in the local currency compared to the price in the USD currency. The other thing that we are also seeing is a blatant disregard for these policies by the government. When a person who pays in US dollars gets a discount, the operator is rewarding those who pay in US dollars.
So, what do I do to get that reward? I must make sure that I lay my hands on a USD somewhere and then try to pay in USD because the USD is allowed tender. It’s in the basket of currencies. So there is no crime. The only crime is how I’m getting the US dollars. So if one gets the US dollars from the parallel market, which is illegal, they have access to fuel and many other things. So we need to sort this out: the government, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, and the citizens. We need to agree that if we are to have our local currency work, then we must work towards stabilising the currency and allowing things to be done legally. And I’m saying it both ways. We have to come to a point where we have a meeting of the minds about how this currency is going to operate.
It’s not about putting a price tag on it. It is about what is informing the figures that we are seeing. Even in US dollars, if we wanted to be honest with ourselves, when the monetary policy was announced, a few days before the monetary policy was announced, you may have seen in the shops that certain goods had disappeared. You may also have seen that the prices of certain commodities have gone up in US dollar terms.
So, there is that profiteering, you know, financial engineering that was happening during that time. The transition now from the ZWL to the ZIG in the form of prices also ensured a rise in prices in US dollar terms. Our plea as an organisation is in two areas. Number one is for the government to provide fuel that farmers will pay for using the local currency. And the second one, which I think is the greater appeal, is for the government to work flat out to stabilise this currency to ensure that we have a working rate for businesses to be able to enhance predictability and planning in businesses. Because if we plan in ZiG, by the end of the year, I should be able to come back and review my performance. But every business is planning in USD and then converting only when they want to transact. And that is not healthy for any currency.
AM: What’s your take on us as a country embracing genetically modified organisms (GMOs)?
PZ: We took a whole year (2012–2013) as a farmer organisation to make inquiries on the GMO issue. How could we, as a country, benefit, and what risks should we think about and even learn to mitigate? We even had a whole congress on the importance of just pursuing the subject. So we did that. And then, out of research, we realised that there was not much of a benefit in terms of yields coming out of the GMO seed. We compared our local hybrids with our open-pollinated varieties. We had to compare the performance of GMO seeds from other countries in many trials that had been done by that time. There was not much of an advantage coming to us.
But on a much, much more important note, we realised that we are in Zimbabwe and we do not produce GMO seed. So if we are to let go or get all our seed contaminated by GMO plasmas and so on. We would then have a serious problem in that we could not supply seeds for our own needs. So whoever controls seed, then controls you. This is what most of Africa needs to understand: who are the producers of the GMO seed? Once you start using that GMO seed, you are now dependent on it forever. If they choose not to provide seed, that’s it. There is one that is called killer seed. It doesn’t necessarily have to be GMO, but it is part of what they are providing. If you plant that seed this season, you will probably realise a very good crop. The seed that is coming out of that stock cannot germinate. So, in other words, there is a whole idea behind your coming back.
So, my take and the take of our organisation has been, if Zimbabwe is not able to produce GMOs, then let’s not go the GMO route. We need to control our seed. That is your food. That’s the genesis of food sovereignty. If you don’t control your seed, you have mortgaged your whole future to somebody else whose ideas may be changed by things unrelated to the seed, and you will probably suffer in the long run.
AM: Are farmers taking part in the Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange (ZMX)?
PZ: Yes, when the ZMX concept was coming together, we were part of the whole co-creation process. We participated in that. We even had some pilot communities where we worked together with certain others, and when they launched, we were together as well. I think the mistake—or rather, not a mistake—where the ZMX kind of lost the base, the grower base, was that when the platform was launched, it became more like an elite type of market.
And it was not brought back to the producers as they were. I am not saying 100 percent that they never went to the producers, but you can tell by how information technology drives everything and yet excludes certain groupings. So, I would advocate for going down to the basics and then engaging the communities like we know that out of the last season, many farmers had already heard that this was going to be a lean season.
Either they chose to retain grain on their farms for on-farm consumption or they had to find other ways of selling their grain for much, much higher prices than were being offered on any other platform through, you know, so many other routes to hedge themselves by storing the value of their crop in a currency they could trust. They held US dollars so that they could buy grain whenever they needed grain or invest in something else that would help them to continue to produce, like irrigation, even during a dry period.
There is a lot that happened, and I want to believe that ZMX lost an opportunity there. There is so much stock that could have passed through that platform. Also, there is another thing about ZMX. ZMX should be an agent that helps with price discovery. To the extent they have done that, I am still not very sure. Maybe I could be accusing them out of my expectations. However, I think there is a need for ZMX to be consistently in touch with the farmers because we receive so many questions and inquiries about that market, which makes me think that there is more that can be done by ZMX to engage farmers.
AM: What are your parting words?
PZ: Well, it is basically to encourage all players, particularly the farmers, to try as much as possible to comply with the regulations, as well as those that are enforcing them, particularly the industry and trade ministries. I am sure they are seized with the local issues as much as they are with the international trade issues. We need to bring sanity to the marketplace as far as the pricing of commodities is concerned. I am not calling for price controls. I am simply saying we need to operate within reasonable price ranges because if one is going to operate in this sense, they should hedge themselves.
This is what is happening, and this is why Zimbabwe is very expensive. It’s a very expensive country. Lastly, to say abundance, abundance, abundance. We have to create abundance. If we have to ever see prices coming down for any commodity, we should have an abundance of that commodity on the market. So that demand does not outstrip supply. If our supply is far greater than our demand, you will see that the crisis will also respond. So it is about production, but what are those things that we need to put in place? What are the drivers for production to happen?
It’s not through taxing people. No, that is killing. I would rather provide certain concessions now and allow for production to happen, production enhancing productivity so that we have an abundance of every commodity that we can produce locally. And then, with that abundance, the excess is exported. We are now earning foreign currency, and the foreign currency that we are earning should be spent on only those things that we cannot produce locally.
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