Focus on problems with agrarian reform

A Zimbabwean state-owned newspaper last week carried a controversial cartoon which attempted to extol the merits of agrarian reform in a country with an economy setting record lows. In the first scene, a Zimbabwean man who had gone abroad in search of a better life reassures an elderly white lady in a nursing home who has soiled herself that he will take care of the situation. In the second scenario, a newly settled farmer sits behind his desk, jacket and tie on, congratulating himself for having stayed at home and farmed. The cartoon's message - have faith and benefit from government policy - tallied with President Robert Mugabe's campaign slogan that "the economy is land and land is the economy". However, with under a month to go before the beginning of the new planting season, analysts have warned that Zimbabwe's agarian reforms are in deep trouble. "Instead of moving towards economic prosperity, the land reform programme is taking us in exactly the opposite direction. While there is a consensus that land should be equitably distributed for the decongestion of communal lands and poverty reduction, the government has rendered agrarian reform an empty paradigm through its policy bankruptcy," charged economist John Robertson. LACK OF PREPARATION In theory, the government's reform programme aimed at tackling the imbalance in land ownership between a small but wealthy mainly white commercial farming sector, and historically disadvantanged black Zimbabweans. But there are widespread fears that a lack of tillage preparedness will hurt next year's harvests and the fortunes of the new black farmers, even if the country enjoys a normal rainy season after this year's drought. District Development Fund statistics show there are 600 tractors available for the national tillage programme, but more than half the fleet is reportedly grounded due to the shortage of foreign currency needed to buy spare parts. In spite of its promise, the government has not yet made available 400 additional tractors for the small-scale farmers who depend on state aid. The shortage of tractors has been reportedly compounded by a lack of fuel to run them. "The situation is worsened by the fact there is insufficient draught power," said Collin Cloete, the president of the white-dominated Commercial Farmers Union. "The national herd of cattle has been reduced from 1.1 million to between 20,000 and 40,000," he added, partly as a result of white farmers evicted from their farms slaughtering their cattle. This year's drought, as well as foot-and-mouth outbreaks in some provinces, have also led to a drastic fall in the number of cattle communal farmers own. This loss will mean that the newly resettled farmers, who traditionally depend on cattle and donkeys for ploughing, will find it difficult to make maximum use of their plots. Some farmers who have been resettled under the A1 model, which is meant mostly for subsistence farming, have registered their displeasure with the lack of tillage facilities. The A2 model is meant for commercial farming. "I was given 15 acres [6 hectares] under the resettlement programme but had only one acre [0.4 hectares] tilled last year. I had to let most of the land I was allocated lie idle for the rest of the year because I did not have the means to plough it," explained Joramu Chikowore, a resettled farmer. Chikowore is one of the 330,000 beneficiaries of agrarian reform under the A1 programme. He got his piece of land in Mashonaland West province's Banket area, a bastion of commercial maize, tobacco and wheat cultivation before the government's fast-track land reform programme. Mashonaland West, blessed with rich red soils, used to commit about 16,000 hectares of land to wheat alone. However, land under wheat was reduced to less than 6,000 last year, with agricultural experts forecasting a further reduction this year. Tobacco production, Zimbabwe's main foreign exchange earner, is projected to drop by 40 percent over last year's production, according to Christopher Vambe, the vice-chairman of the Zimbabwe Association of Tobacco Growers (ZATG). "Most new farmers do not have the capacity to grow tobacco and they have not been given the proper training. In addition barn facilities for flue-cured tobacco are not sufficient. Those available can only cater for 33 hectares of tobacco instead of the normal 56 hectares," Vambe said at ZATG's first annual congress last Tuesday. LACK OF FUNDS The president of the Indigenous Commercial Farmers Union, John Mautsa, said that in order to help his members buy inputs, the union had tried to form an organisation that would pool resources. However, "the company has not yet taken off because we do not have the means to do so," he told IRIN. "If the rains arrive and we have done nothing, just like last year, we will be forced to abandon most of our plots and that might mean more hunger for us. We will also be unable to sell anything," an unsettled Chikowore said. The 2002-2003 planting season comes at a time when prices of inputs have increased sharply. Recently, the government gazetted new prices for maize, groundnut and sunflower seed. The prices leaped by an average of 120 percent late last month. A 25 kg bag of maize seed now costs Zim $4,280 (US $78 at the official rate), up from Zim $1,946 (US $35), while a 10 kg bag rose from Zim $806 to Zim $1,773. Groundnut and sunflower seed prices shot up by more than 150 percent. Given the long-running erosion of people's purchasing power, many resettled families may not be able to buy enough seed for planting. Petronella Chisvo, a war veteran who was resettled about 70 km north of Harare, told IRIN: "My husband, who works in Harare, is currently struggling to pay school fees for three of our children who are still going to school. His salary is meagre and he can hardly afford to buy us such basic commodities like bread, sugar, mealie-meal and salt. Where are we going to get the money for the seeds?" Concerned that poverty among his members may prevent them from taking full advantage of the fast-track scheme, Mautsa suggested the government should subsidise farmers' production costs, while at the same time announcing new pre-planting prices for crops to act as an incentive. However, Robertson said that would be a mistake. "Subsidising farmers is an ideal that the government cannot achieve. Subsidies are extremely expensive and it takes a rich country to manage them," he said, adding that it would be fiscally unsupportable given the state of Zimbabwe's "pathetic economy". Even the war veterans who gained notoriety for leading the invasions of commercial farms have signalled concern about the fast-track programme. Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA) Andy Mhlanga, has called for the government to do more to secure the success of the programme. "The evidence on the ground shows that the government needs to move faster," said Mhlanga, who also bemoaned the lack of inputs and implements on farms. ZNLWVA has launched a land audit to run parallel with a government initiative introduced earlier this year to establish how land had been allocated. The veterans, who were promised 20 percent of the total resettlement land in 1997, have reportedly accused top government officials of multiple farm ownership at the expense of the intended beneficiaries. The take-up rate of farm plots by approved beneficiaries in both the A1 and A2 schemes has been disappointing for land reform proponents. According to official figures, only about 50 percent of the new farmers had moved onto their plots by the end of September 2002. Government minister and provincial governor for Mashonaland Central, Elliot Manyika, recently said that financial constraints barred many families from moving to their plots, as some would have to travel long distances. Manyika also said some family heads were not willing to leave the graves of their relatives unattended. Other would-be beneficiaries were reportedly discouraged because they would not have access to the schools and hospitals on the new farms that they enjoyed in their old villages.