Treat farming as business
EDITOR — Zimbabwe has a huge potential to make its agricultural sector a success and shame the barking Boers we dislodged in our legitimate revolutionary style.
Our banks must give loans to farmers because a huge part of farming is financing. Farming is like any other business. I would argue that a commercial farmer is no different from the owner of a bank or a supermarket chain.
One cannot have a viable commercial business without the requisite financing. It is high time that banks do a bit of due diligence and surveying to find out which commercial farmers have the most promise and qualify for financing to the scale of their farm.
Banks with a proper agro-division can then monitor the stages of the farming process such as land preparation, sowing, fertilising and harvesting. Banks should also help in looking for markets for the produce so that they guarantee that there will be a return on their investment.
This is common practice the world over and is how those who ran commercial farms before the land reform conducted their business. A lot of new farmers have been wrongly criticised for not producing the same quantities as their white counterparts, but one must ask if they have had the same access to financing and markets.
When we talk of sanctions there are subtle nuances such as these that have affected us. What we need is a banking sector that is willing to take up the mantle and be proactive in the farming industry.
We also need logistics and storage companies to play ball. It is something that is starting to happen, but there must be a greater push for us to get back to and eventually surpass where we were.
We need to improve on how we administer good projects in our national interest. Our Government has taken an initiative with Command Agriculture and now other independent and private contractors must come on board to ensure that we continue to grow the industry. Sharon Muchirawehondo, Gweru.