‘Government committed to agriculture’
ZIMBABWE is fully committed to minimising the effects of El Nino, the head of one of the world’s most reputable agricultural research and training institutions has said. Dr Martin Kropff, the director-general of the Mexico headquartered International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), made these remarks after meeting President Mnangagwa and Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Minister, Air Marshall (Retired) Perrance Shiri in Harare last week.
In a wide-ranging interview with our Senior Reporter, Tendai Chara, Dr Kropff spoke highly about Government’s commitment of ensuring food security and the desire to regain the bread basket of Africa status. Dr Kropff also spoke at length about the cordial relationship that CIMMYT enjoys with Zimbabwe and the challenges that local farmers are facing. He also offered possible solutions on how Zimbabwe can mitigate the effects of the impending drought. Q: Tell us about your visit to the Minister of Agriculture.
A: We met first the Minister of Agriculture, he was very interested, he knew about CIMMYT, the improvement centre for breeding maize internationally. He was aware of the fact that we work in the fields of new germ plasm, new seeds that are high yielding, that are drought tolerant, that are heat tolerant and that are also resistant to new pests and diseases. The minister is very knowledgeable, he is a farmer as well. He was very interested to see how CIMMYT can contribute to agricultural growth in Zimbabwe. There is an ambition to make Zimbabwe self-sufficient and to make Zimbabwe the bread basket of Africa again. It is not only on maize, it is also on wheat. We also do global wheat breeding. The minister was very interested in the collaboration. We are doing this globally. We have offices in 18 countries, including Mexico, Kenya, Ethiopia, China and Nepal, among others. We are a global organisation and we
can bring ideas, germ plasm, knowledge and technologies from country to country and we are partnering with the best universities in the world. The minister spoke a lot on small-scale mechanisation, about the two-wheel tractors with the special appliances that our engineers have developed for conservation agriculture. Those can be used with the models that we have done in Mexico, Nepal, India and Kenya. We also now working on Zimbabwe. I noted that the minister has got a great vision. Q: What is your impression of President Mnangagwa? A: I was very well-received by the President, he is also very knowledgeable about farming as he is also a farmer. The President was very positive on working with CIMMYT. He is very much committed to supporting small-holder farmers. He liked the approach of making farming ready for climate change resilience, he mentioned that explicitly. The President is also worried about climate change and he welcomed our technologies and our support for the country. It was a very pleasant visit.
Q: When did CIMMYT’s relationship with Zimbabwe start? A: CIMMYT is one of the few international organisations that never left your country. For the last 30 years, we have been here. We have always wanted to contribute to Zimbabwe and surrounding countries, so we stayed in Zimbabwe, we didn’t move out. I am very happy that we are there ready to support the national system, the private sector, the Government in agricultural innovation and especially with maize and wheat. There is a lot of demand for wheat in your country. We are delivering 60 percent of the wheat varieties in the developing countries, all over the world. We develop them with money from donor countries and foundations and we give the varieties for free to small seed companies.
Q: What are your targets for Zimbabwe? A: Our target is to help the farmer to come from one tonne per hectare output and double it in a couple of years using the different technologies. In Ethiopia, they are getting four tonnes per hectare and they are using our technologies. In neighbouring Zambia, they are beyond the two tonnes per hectare.
Q: What must local farmers do to mitigate any potential drought? A: I encourage them to use new technologies as well as conservation agriculture. The onset of the rains is always the issue. If you practice conservation agriculture, you have seeds in the soil waiting for the rains and when the rains come in, the seeds can start germinating and growing straight away. Conservation agriculture gives a boost to the good varieties plus we also have the short season varieties which are not just short season but also heat and drought tolerant, which means they can both escape drought and El Nino.
Q: Are you happy with the uptake of the new seed varieties that you produce in Zimbabwe? A: More than 75 percent of the maize seed varieties in Zimbabwe are developed by CIMMYT. So the uptake is very high. We would, however, want to see the uptake growing even higher. For example, we have been working on drought tolerant varieties for a long time in Africa but we only have three-and-a-half million hectares of drought maize which are cultivated each year. Although the hectarage might sound huge, it is, however, only 10 percent of the total maize that is produced in Africa. We need more drought tolerant maize in East and Southern Africa. It makes a huge difference. We want to help small-scale farmers to use the technologies we have at our disposal.
Q: How do you see the local agriculture’s future?
A: There is a lot of opportunities here. The leadership discussed these with us at length, this indicates the importance they place on agriculture. Agriculture is so important for Zimbabwe’s economy and the country’s leadership takes agriculture very seriously.