Just look at what we’ve done

EDITOR — They thought we couldn’t do it, but it’s done! They thought we couldn’t win, but we won! And in the words of Lord Tariq, “They said it would be better if we run, but we ran to the top of the charts.”

My Easter was filled with raptures of laughter. The laughter was sometimes so spontaneous that several characters joked that Yours Truly had gone bonkers.

Even my better half, that alluring expression of Heaven’s craftsmanship, thought I was high on something!

Of course, I was. I was high on the good news which The Sunday Mail published on its front page!

A haul of 2,7 million tonnes of grain is no joke. That was indeed good news which Minister Joseph Made delivered on Good Friday.

All along, the Land Reform Programme has been trashed just because some puny chaps either did not want to acquaint themselves with its objectives or simply wanted to cast aspersions on the initiative.

In the programme’s preliminary stages, we were told that agriculture production had plummeted because Mugabe had chased away white farmers.

Another tale had it that Zimbabwe would remain a “basket case” for a long time to come.

It’s true production plummeted in those early years. What did such doom-sayers expect, anyway? These were new farmers venturing into the realm of uncharted waters and mistakes were inevitable due to lack of expertise. Things looked topsy-turvey and that’s the nature of revolutions. We are now in 2017 and the same cannot be said of land reform beneficiaries. They were baby farmers then and have now grown into grandmasters of the art of farming.

I’m a farmer myself; I know what I’ve seen over the years. People have now fully embraced farming, knowing full well that it is the nation’s source of sustenance.

I was very excited to learn that we could all but harvest such a significant amount of grain. It shows that with Government support and on our own as Zimbabweans, we can do great things. Never again will we hear the comparison with white farmers being read against poor performances by land reform beneficiaries.

We have turned the corner in our march towards economic prosperity.

We saw the revolution coming when the number of registered tobacco farmers increased a couple of years ago. Both that figure and output surpass pre-land reform statistics.

I’m glad too that I have not heard the term “new farmer” in a long time, signifying that our farmers have come of age. With Government support, I see agriculture and the general economy transforming. Those who were against land reform are slowly recoiling, I’m sure.

This is precisely what they didn’t want; a successful land reform that goes on to enhance production.

What sayeth the doomsayers and naysayers now? Should we run or hold fort?

I guess we have done it and run to the top of the charts! The Farmer, Chinhoyi.