Obey the Command-ments and live

HOWDY folks! When you read our sacrosanct Constitution, you will realise that food security is enshrined therein, which solidifies the indispensability of programmes such as Command Agriculture and the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme.

Section 15 simply says that, “The State must encourage people to grow and store adequate food and secure the establishment of adequate food reserves”.

Imagine how timely the Command Agriculture programme came last year.

We were coming from an El Nino-induced drought season that left many farmers so broke and with no hopes of returning back to their fields.

Then came the rains — early, in abundance and long lasting.

Certainly, there was no way many farmers who were barely managing to buy enough food for their families would have managed to buy inputs.

Yaita zhara kwakana zvokwadi, as farmers were going to just watch the rains fall down with nothing to do, apart from washing away their tears.

Banks were not going to be of much help, as their level of funding to agriculture has been diminishing over the years.

In fact the funding has fallen from 35 percent of total loans in 1996 to 16,7 percent last year.

Banks’ general appetite to lend has also waned, as can be seen from the decline in the loan to deposits ratio.

Folks, the agriculture sector shrank by -5,3 percent in 2015 and last year it dipped 3,6 percent.

But we turned the corner last year when Government made a deliberate and conscious decision to aggressively mobilise support for agriculture at a higher level and scale, through the advent of Command Agriculture.

And agriculture is projected to make a strong comeback this year, growing by 21,6 percent.

This was mainly thanks to the expansion of the areas planted for a number of crops, with maize hectarage increasing by 52 percent, sorghum 54 percent, finger millet 91 percent and cotton 104 percent, as more inputs were made available easily.

We have made an achievement by ensuring that the staple food is not only adequately available, but is in excess as well.

And plans are already afoot to expand and improve going forward.

Then you hear some folks condemning such efforts.

Should Government just have sat down and watched as the rains fall without supporting farmers? Surely such a government wouldn’t deserve to be in power!

It appears some people have been captured by hunger for too long and now think that’s the way it should be, and that they don’t deserve better.

The Stockholm syndrome seems to possess some folks.

With the way they oppose, you somehow get the impression that perhaps they are so accustomed to poverty and hunger to the end that they will do anything to remain poor.

They are so sympathetic to their captor — hunger — and tend to support it and even wish to be held as hostages of hunger for life.

Have they really established such strong psychological bonds with their kidnapper — hunger — and are they really this prepared to fight for their tormentors even to the death?

Well, that is probably the power of Stockholm syndrome, and maybe we should forgive them.

Even psychologists argue that such feelings, resulting from a bond formed between captor and captives during intimate time spent together, are normally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims.

Hunger has been with us for quite some time and it might be natural for some folks to think they don’t deserve the season of plenty that is upon us.

But the good Lord is replenishing zvakadyiwa negwatakwata nemupedzachose, as Government runs with the Command Agriculture.

Let’s not condemn but commend Command Agriculture for that.

Then there is another group of rich fellows who think that the generality of the populace, including vana Mbuya vaBhule vari kwaBenzi, do not deserve to eat.

Those special few think that staple food should be a luxury to folks and are doing everything they can sabotage this noble programme. Ah, pasi navo! Why do you think that a right should be rationed as a privilege to only those who have lots of money?

Let’s get that right folks, food is a right!

We are the ones who enshrined it in the national Constitution so that we can demand that right.

Section 77b of the constitution says every person has the right to sufficient food.

It does not end there, it goes on to say that the State must take legislative and other measures to achieve the realisation of this right.

Why do some people want to stand in the way of Government which is only trying to deliver such a fundamental right?

We surely cannot expect meaningful agriculture to take place without adequate inputs that are made available timeously.

And when Government borrows money or come up with other appropriate measures to meet the requirements of farmers that should not be seen as profligacy.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa addressed an almost related issue in Parliament last Wednesday.

Said Chinamasa, “The challenge we have is to contain expenditure and a lot of that expenditure sometimes is necessary…

“Some of it is constitutional and we inherited it through our Constitution . . . When I now seek to fund them, it is called fiscal indiscipline.

“It is not so. I am merely meeting the constitutional obligation that I have; to meet Government expenditure and programmes.”

Government is planning to increase the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme by 125 percent to 1,8 million households this year. Command Agriculture is also being deepened and widened into other areas such as fisheries and cattle.

These programmes directly impact the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans in a positive way.

Folks, agriculture is the backbone of the economy.

The welcome message you get when you visit the Ministry of Agriculture’s website aptly sums it all: “Agriculture is the backbone of the Zimbabwean economy. It provides livelihoods to 80 percent of the population and accounts for 23 percent of formal employment.

“The sector contributes 14–18,5 percent to gross domestic product and approximately 33 percent of foreign earnings. The future of Zimbabwe therefore lies in the development of a diversified, vibrant, competitive and efficient agricultural sector.”

Without the backbone, the economy is as good as paralysed.

We are saying the economy has been a sleeping giant for some time now. And we have learnt our mistakes enough during that season. Now it is the time to obey the Command-ments and live.

Instead of trying to demonise, factionalise, politicise, sensationalise and “ugly-sise” Command Agriculture, let us support it and constructively critique it in a way that pushes its agenda forward.

“May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy! He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:5-6).

Later folks!