Growers blame years of government corruption and inefficiency for lack of promised assistance. Now, the land meant to bring economic power to Black farmers instead leaves them with empty pockets.<\/p>\n
MASHONALAND WEST, ZIMBABWE \u2014 The smell of freshly plowed soil fills the air at a Kent Estates farm, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Harare, the capital city. Soft sounds of hoes piercing the soil echo from a distance. Farmers are at work.<\/p>\n
Those farmers are Godfrey Gosa and his employees toiling on his holding of 85 hectares (about 210 acres). Gosa began farming in 2004 after he became a beneficiary of Zimbabwe\u2019s fast-track land reform program.<\/p>\n
But today Gosa uses only 10 of those hectares, where he grows maize, beans and leafy vegetables. The rest lie idle.<\/p>\n
The land goes unused because Gosa\u2019s farm was once a plantation of gum trees, and he doesn\u2019t have the machinery to clear them. And he has lost faith in government efforts to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would spend weeks with nothing materializing because corruption dominated the program,\u201d says Gosa, referring to Zimbabwe\u2019s current setup to assist farmers, known as Command Agriculture. \u201cI was really tired of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2000, Zimbabwe announced fast-track land reform, created to take property from its white minority and return millions of hectares to its Black majority. In this nation of farmers, it was a move that promised economic relief and power to Black Zimbabweans, who at the time owned the country\u2019s least valuable tracts and a fraction of the land overall.<\/p>\n
Twenty years later, many farmers believe the promise of prosperity remains unfulfilled. Vast tracts of land lie fallow because growers don\u2019t have equipment and \u201cinputs,\u201d such as seed and fertilizer. Frustrated farmers like Gosa say that, among other challenges, government efforts meant to provide them with these necessities have been crippled by corruption and inefficiencies, leaving them with unproductive fields.<\/p>\n
Juliet Chimimba washes dishes on her farm in Kent Estates, where she moved her family during Zimbabwe\u2019s land reform initiative in the early 2000s. She says she uses only a fraction of her land because she lacks financing and machinery.<\/p>\n
Linda Mujuru, GPJ Zimbabwe<\/p>\n
Farmers remain some of the few whose industries are not decimated by a government lockdown intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus \u2014 at least not yet. \u201cPeople still need to eat,\u201d Gosa says. \u201cIn the long run, we foresee coronavirus affecting the economy as a whole and the agriculture sector will be affected too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gosa isn\u2019t the only one who sees farming as a necessity.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur economy is agriculture-based,\u201d says Prince Kuipa, the chief economist of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union. \u201cThis means agriculture is at the center of everything. If the center is not holding, it means the fertilizer companies do not have buyers, the industry is waiting for raw materials from farmers, and many of them have closed \u2014 and, therefore, the economy dies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither Zimbabwe\u2019s minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement nor the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement responded to requests for interviews or to written questions.<\/p>\n
About two-thirds of Zimbabwe\u2019s 14.8 million people work in agriculture. They use 41% of the country\u2019s 39 million hectares (96 million acres).<\/p>\n
After Zimbabwe\u2019s independence in 1980, the new government made land reform a priority, but its efforts stalled. Two decades later, white Zimbabweans still owned most of the nation\u2019s farms and estates. In the fast-track land reform that followed, the government redistributed state-owned lands and also acquired 10.8 million hectares (26.6 million acres) for reallocation.<\/p>\n
The program aimed to stabilize subsistence farmers and the landless, while positioning new Black commercial farmers for economic success.<\/p>\n
Yet over the next few years, financing for agriculture nosedived. In response, the government tried the Farm Mechanization Program in 2007, in which farmers received equipment and loans that many did not repay. Critics say corruption among both the political elite and farmers themselves led to its failure.<\/p>\n
I would spend weeks with nothing materializing because corruption dominated the program. I was really tired of that.Godfrey Gosa, referring to a government program known as Command Agriculture
\nFor example, some farmers got tractors from the government, Gosa says, but instead of using them for their fields, they resold them.<\/p>\n
By 2010, the number of large commercial farms, owned mainly by whites, had plummeted by 72%.<\/p>\n
Then in the 2016-17 farming season, the government tried to rescue the sector again with the current Command Agriculture program, designed to boost local food production and guarantee food security.<\/p>\n
Farmers who signed up agreed to produce at least 1,000 metric tons of maize and commit 5 metric tons per hectare to repay loans that came in the form of equipment and inputs.<\/p>\n
In this program, farmers picked up seed and fertilizer from provincial offices. At those pick-up points, some agriculture extension officers gave inputs only to farmers they knew and took bribes from others, according to parliamentary reports and Gosa. At times, disbursement of the inputs was delayed, and farmers received seed long after the planting season had passed.<\/p>\n
Gosa, 58, a retired army man who is married with six children, says such inefficiencies and mismanagement have left growers underfunded. He can grow only his few crops, selling some to commercial farmers to resell. He says he produces just enough to survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a hand-to-mouth situation,\u201d says Gosa, a tall, fit man with hands muddy from planting. \u201cI can\u2019t save for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juliet Chimimba, 46, came to Kent Estates in 2004 with her four children, after being allocated land through the fast-track program. She grows tobacco, sugar beans and maize. She has 128 hectares (about 316 acres), but farms only about 4% of the land.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Growers blame years of government corruption and inefficiency for lack of promised assistance. Now, the land meant to bring economic power to Black farmers instead leaves them with empty pockets. MASHONALAND WEST, ZIMBABWE \u2014 The smell of freshly plowed soil fills the air at a Kent Estates farm, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Harare, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":25789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[800,953],"class_list":{"0":"post-25788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-government-of-zimbabwe","10":"tag-zimbabwe-farmers-union"},"yoast_head":"\n