Money now being printed in the village
past few weeks have been scaldingly hot, and the heavens seem to be still stingy with the rainwater needed to quench the parched earth.
THE weatherman insists we might receive normal to below-normal rains in the 2023/2024 season because of the El Niño weather phenomenon. And the episodic rains make it hard to disagree, especially considering the current oppressive heat, and the fact that we are fast approaching December.
Farmers, particularly those who rely on rain-fed agriculture, have now become nail-bitingly anxious.
Well, the last time Bishop Lazi felt so discomforted by such extreme weather was when he visited Dubai — the capital of Dubai Emirate, one of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — for the first time.
Nothing could have ever prepared him for the gale of almost asphyxiating humid air that greeted him as he existed the soothingly air-conditioned Dubai International Airport.
It was almost overpowering, even for someone who had grown up in the hot climes of Buhera, which, as most people know, can be wretchedly hot.
How do people survive — nay, thrive — in such weather?
You see, the Gulf region, of which the UAE are a part, is considered to have the hottest weather on Earth.
Yet the allure of countries that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — grows ever more irresistible.
What they lack in good climate they more than compensate for in fabulous wealth, as they are some of the world’s richest countries.
It is generally estimated that the 10 largest sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf, which largely pool massive revenues from oil wealth, manage an eye-watering US$4 trillion for the region’s 58,9 million people.
Just for perspective, this dwarfs Africa’s cumulative Gross Domestic Product — a measure of the total goods and services produced on the continent — of about US$3 trillion.
And yet more than one billion people call Africa home.
So, the gulf (no pun intended) in wealth becomes apparent.
But, as the world increasingly switches from fossils to green energy, and, as the Gulf states scour the world for opportunities in an attempt to diversify their economies, this has naturally created a window for mutually beneficial trade and investments.
Seizing the moment
And President ED, who is presently assiduously and aggressively pushing through his agenda to create an empowered and prosperous state by 2028, has been quick to seize the moment.
Soon after taking over the reins, he began building the scaffold of diplomatic relations between Harare and Abu Dhabi, which was envisaged to undergird the new economic diplomacy thrust.
By 2019, the UAE had opened an embassy in Harare, while Zimbabwe opened its embassy in Abu Dhabi in 2021, led by Ambassador Lovemore Mazemo.
It was a masterstroke. Zimbabwe’s exports to the UAE have since exponentially risen from US$223 million in 2017 to US$2,2 billion in 2022, helping the Arab state dislodge neighbouring Zambia as
the country’s second-largest trading partner.
Encouragingly, there is still huge scope to export flowers, fruits, vegetables, tea, sugar and meat.
It is not so much about the thrill of high numbers representing the burgeoning trade between Harare and Abu Dhabi, but the inherent potential of rewarding business for our farmers, who have demonstrable capacity to supply these new cash-flush markets with anything from spices to either goat and lamb meat, among a variety of products.
If you had not noticed by now, one of ED’s obsessions is lifting millions of our people, particularly those in rural communities, where most of the people live, from poverty to prosperity.
This has already begun to happen either directly or indirectly.
Just last week, we were celebrating the momentous feat by our farmers of producing a record 467 000 tonnes of wheat, which is
more than at any time since the beginning of commercial wheat production in Zimbabwe.
It is also more than the 360 000 tonnes that we need each year.
However, the Bishop feels our farmers have not been celebrated enough, particularly for putting paid to the bigoted and thoroughly racist stereotypical narrative that blacks are innately incapable of producing food for themselves.
This lie was repeated so often that even our own people began to believe it.
Our very own Thomas Mapfumo actually penned a song, “Marima Nzara”, from his base in Oregon, the United States, in 2001 prophesying our comeuppance for daring to “chase away farmers”.
For the myopic, it, however, seemed true, as its speciousness was reinforced by a decline in agricultural production that characterised the upheaval of transferring land from the reluctant white farmers to its rightful owners.
But we have since turned the corner. Our granaries are full and other countries are lining up to buy our wheat, as the world’s biggest producers and exporters of the cereal — Russia and Ukraine — are still locked in a seemingly intractable war of attrition, which is affecting production and the movement of grain to international markets.
Happily, for our hardworking farmers, rising production means growing wealth.
Production of the cash crop is no longer limited to commercial farmers, but smallholder farmers, including those empowered through the revival of irrigation schemes, such as Bubi-Lupane.
And the rate at which irrigation schemes are being brought back to life is simply mind-blowing.
Only last week, we heard that work on the Bulawayo Kraal Irrigation Scheme is close to completion, meaning it will be commissioned soon — in fact, very soon.
The transformative impact this is having on individuals, families and communities is immense. The schemes — through the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority’s Vision 2030 Accelerator — have been turned into business ventures in which farmers are shareholders.
Commodity prices have also become competitive. For instance, the pre-planting floor producer price for wheat this year was set at US$520 per tonne.
All this money is being funnelled into farmers’ pockets; in the process, curing the absurdity of supporting farmers in foreign lands from where we used to import.
New zeitgeist
And the progress being made by our rural communities has not escaped many.
The regularity with which solar-powered boreholes and newly designed and painted houses — with lush-green neatly kempt lawns to boot — are mushrooming in the countryside is as telling as it is encouraging.
There are people who are living in homes that are compatible with any that you can find in some of our low-density suburbs, and they are also leading lifestyles that can only be read in magazines.
It is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly common, which betrays a new zeitgeist born out of the realisation that land is the economy and the economy is land.
There is a nascent revolution in the countryside driven by youths who are venturing into commercial livestock production and horticulture, among other agri-business pursuits.
They have come to realise that money and wealth can be printed in the village, where the pervasive use of solar energy is powering various economic activities.
The Bishop contends that over the next few years, it will be difficult to get communal land, as many have begun scrambling for land.
Have you ever stopped to think where the now ubiquitous water melons in our suburbs and along our highways are coming from?
There are lessons to be learnt from China, which has managed the incredible feat of lifting more than 800 million of its people out of poverty over the past 40 years.
Cadres from the Communist Party of China, who are always with the people, actively assist farmers produce quality products, package and transport them to markets, as part of targeted empowerment projects for rural communities.
This is why ED emphasised in meetings of key organs of the party — the Politburo and Central Committee — that preceded this year’s National People’s Conference that party functionaries should be prepared to roll up their sleeves and work to make the country prosperous.
Bishop Lazi’s heart sinks every time he sees those hardworking farmers selling their produce by the roadside when he knows they could be getting a fortune if somehow they could be linked to international markets.
The Bishop has been to some countries in North Africa where this product is in demand.
Through his pro-business agenda and continued exhortation for people to “make money”, ED has spawned a revolution, whose impact would become more than apparent soon. This is what visionary leadership brings.
Acts 12:17-18 says: “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”
Our young men are seeing visions and old men are dreaming dreams.
Bishop out!