Farmers must break cycle of dependency on Govt
RECENTLY, the Government announced plans to avail more inputs for farmers intending to expand their hectarages under the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme.
Essentially, the move was inspired by the desire to ensure all citizens have enough food and even surplus to sell and generate some income.
This makes a lot of sense given that the Pfumvudza model is an actualisation of the dogma to treat agriculture like any other business in which one invests and harvests profits.
The Pfumvudza tenets of producing more using very little clearly hints at its business nature where investments should generate more in return. Under Pfumvudza, the farmer must know the number of planting stations (holes) he has on his plot and the plant population as well as the cobs per plant.
This goes down to the point of also establishing the number of kernels per cob and the kernels needed to fill a bucket versus the number of buckets he needs per year. Armed with such knowledge, the farmer can then calculate own requirements from the yields before selling surplus.
To me this is a business approach that can easily make one food secure, and is economically sound if done properly.
And to make sure farmers do everything to book, Government has also deployed extension workers that are equipped with motor bikes and tablets for easy communication and movement so there should be no excuse for farmers to perform below par if the season is a good one.
Farmers have also been trained on the basics of the concept and how to make it more viable than conventional farming.
It is therefore not folly to expect farmers who benefitted from the programme at its inception to have been weaned from Government support by now to make way for new beneficiaries.
It, however, seems some farmers are comfortable being beneficiaries every season and do not take the initiative to graduate from relying on the Government for them to have a successful season.
The sober truth is that Government has a lot on its plate and cannot perennially help the same people for the same problem.
It is not surprising that Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary Professor Obert
Jiri recently hinted that Government’s focus was to make sure everyone had enough food on the table but quickly added that the idea was not to give them fish but to teach them to fish and be self-reliant later.
In less idiomatic terms, Prof Jiri was saying all the efforts Government is making in coming up with a cocktail of resilience building measures and climate smart technologies are designed to make everyone, everywhere food secure every day instead of waiting for free food handouts.
He did not end there but commented that humanitarian assistance would now be a thing of the past, with Government recently announcing plans to provide more inputs for vulnerable groups that needed to increase their number of plots under Pfumvudza.
Logically, such a move should also increase their incomes besides boosting food security.
The ball is now in the farmers’ court. The brutal truth is that most of them have land that can accommodate more plots, which is not being used so there is no reason for them not to take up Government’s offer and broaden their production levels.
This will leave them more secure in terms of both food security and incomes. It will not make sense for the farmers to be perennial dependants on Government programmes because that will also curtail their growths as individuals while stalling the expansion of the national economy as well.
Suffice it to say therefore that Government can always extend a helping hand to vulnerable groups that include the elderly, child headed families, orphans and the chronically ill who cannot adequately provide for themselves, thanks to their disadvantaged positions.
The idea of having farmers going it alone may at first sound less-caring but it builds the much-needed sense of business and ownership of farming programmes or projects.
Where the farmer injects own capital, the zeal to recoup that money will drive him /her to go the extra mile and produce more. Naturally, this burning desire to succeed may easily die if they know that Government will just come in and support them for the next season.
If the country is to seriously take agriculture as a business in which farmers participate in market-oriented agriculture that can improve their livelihoods through diversified nutrition, employment and enhanced incomes, it is imperative that they also bear the cost of production even if Government may step in to assist.
As producers and consumers, smallholder farmers are key actors in the agriculture sector and must readily play the part.
It is refreshing to note that Government is alive to farmers’ needs and growing challenges and has since moved in to promote innovative approaches in extension and general development of the agriculture sector, pluralism of service provision, and demand-driven extension services along the agricultural enterprises value chains.
The current agricultural extension services have gone beyond production technology transfer to facilitation, training to learning, dealing with post-harvest handling, food safety, nutrition, value addition and marketing issues.
It is also taking into account the conservation of natural resources, financial and other resource mobilisation, agribusiness, and gender issues in the agriculture sector and more specifically at household level.
This is what the independent farmer needs to grow as a business person.
Our farmers are also lucky to have service providers that are up to date with topical issues in agriculture in as far as changes in the global food and agricultural systems, changes in consumer demands, off-farm rural employment opportunities and mitigating constraints imposed by pandemics such as Covid-19 and HIV/ AIDS are concerned.
Most importantly, the country’s extension services are also being mainstreamed to come in handy for farmers when they tackle climate change challenges that are frustrating agricultural productivity and production.
This leaves farmers without a reason to keep on expecting Government to fund them every season, which clips their wings or delays individual growth.
Government’s programmes are meant to provide a threshold for farmers to re-charge and go back into business on their own once again and not expect to be eternal dependants on aid.
Of course, there are times when Government has to chip in, for instance, when the weather turns hostile to production and causes poor yields that leave farmers unable to generate meaningful incomes to support their activities.
Government has always done that and has even intervened when there are manmade challenges threatening to ruin agricultural production. The crux of the matter is that farmers must move away from expecting Government to be supporting them every year.
WHICH world is this?
The modern world has not seen anything like this. It is horrible. It is a genocide that should leave leaders of Israel and its allies, especially the US ashamed to still call themselves human beings.
About 25 000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the three or four months of relentless and indiscriminate bombing that has not spared schools and hospitals, either. Genocide is the word. Cruelty and brutality! Israel has become a vampire state.
Imagine that Gaza no longer has medication for treatment of wounds and is resorting to salt solutions. And, unbelievably, the price of salt has risen to US$13 per kg from about US$0.50 cents. Access to medication for injured innocent men, women and children is no longer there.
Palestinians are now resorting to burying their dead within hospital grounds for fear of being attacked at graveyards as the indiscriminate bombing continues. How sad?
Graveyards of Palestinians have been desecrated in a manner that shows that the people Gaza are no longer safe dead or alive.
Well, what is this, for a world that is progressive? If US had not supported Israel, would this have happened? No.
And where is the US in all this matrix. The Joe Biden administration has been exposed for hypocrisy and double standards. What they said about Russia in a justified war in Ukraine, they cannot say the same in Gaza. The US pushed Russia to the International Court but is mum on Israel. Well, this is very, very cruel indeed.
US President Biden should be ashamed to be still seeking re-election in 2024, when his hands are dripping of Palestinian blood. The progressive world is worried about how Biden wants to continue playing a leadership role when he has failed dismally.
Back in his home in the US, Biden has