Resettled farmers encounter fallout from economic meltdown

The prospects for agricultural revival in Zimbabwe in the new farming season have been thrown into doubt following reports that a parastatal charged with implementing the tillage programme among resettled subsistence farmers, is facing serious problems including the poor state of mechanised and other farming implements and a chronic shortage of fuel. District Development Fund (DDF) officials said more than half the tillage fleet of tractors was in a state of disrepair due to the shortage of spare parts, a situation which worsened early this year when Tanaka Power, a Harare-based agricultural equipment and supplies company, withdrew its services following DDF's failure to service its debt. This year's crop farming season, which comes as the country is going through a multi-faceted social and economic crisis, holds little promise for these farmers. The DDF has said they will be required to pay Zim $32,000 (US $400) upfront per hectare tilled, and buy their own fuel at a subsidised rate of Zim $200 (US 25 cents) per litre. Although the price is a remarkable climb-down from the current price of Zim $2,000 (US $2.50) a litre, DDF officials in western Matabeleland province said the farmers had complained, saying most of them could not afford the fees. "The situation in the tillage sections throughout the country is very bad. It would be a dangerous gamble for farmers to look to the DDF, because the tractors are in a state of disrepair. If they insist, they will find that the few that are in working order have no fuel, which they will have to buy themselves," said an official who refused to be named. "Besides the impossibility of villagers securing fuel without government help, the high cost of tillage charges can only be met by established, highly productive commercial farmers, as opposed to those coming from a subsistence background. Disc ploughs are also in short supply, while the few that are there also need to be replaced or somehow repaired - so the DDF is not ready for the tillage task and government is aware of that." He said the DDF's plight worsened early this year when a Harare agricultural equipment and spares distributor withdrew from a service and equipment spares supply contract, citing the parastatal's failure to pay for services rendered in last year's farming season. "The company said it was failing to cope with the increasing ... [quantity] of equipment requiring service as the parastatal's debt soared, so they turned back all the DDF equipment. The situation, as it prevails now, is that even if the farmers manage to pay, they will not get the service. So failure by the farmers to pay would be a blessing in disguise for the DDF, because it has no capacity to deliver tillage services at the moment," he said. He added that under normal conditions, the DDF should have at least seven tractors assigned to tillage per district, but some districts still did not have any. "The highest number you can find working in the districts in Matabeleland will be two, but they also do not have fuel and the tillage programme has not started." Farmers are required to organise themselves into groups and approach the Agricultural Rural Extension Services (AREX), which would in turn visit them individually to assess the hectarage they want tilled, and then calculate the amount and cost of the fuel required. AREX is charged with procuring the fuel, while the local rural district council is required to provide fuel storage facilities in the area where the tractors would be working. Given the new maize seed prices announced by the government last week, and the overall cost of tillage, a farmer has to fork out a total of $Zim 133,000 (US $166) to till and plant one hectare of farmland. A 10 kg bag of seed maize, enough for 1 hectare, now costs Zim $21,000 (US $26), it takes Zim $80,000 (US $100) to fill the fuel tank of a tractor, and the cost of tillage will stand at Zim $32,000 (US $40). The DDF Director of Operations declined to give details on their state of preparedness and referred IRIN to the DDF Director-General, who was not immediately available for comment. The managing director (MD) of Tanaka Power refused to expand on the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of their contract with DDF, and referred IRIN back to the DDF. "This is a government contract and such issues are sensitive. DDF would be the best people to discuss that with." The government announced new maize seed prices, which were roundly condemned as unaffordable to farmers, following a submission to parliament by seed companies citing the low government-controlled prices as one of the major factors that could threaten their viability and, therefore, the sustainability of seed supplies in the new season. In the past two weeks the majority of stakeholders in the farm inputs and other agro-supplies sectors have pointed out that the combination of factors making up the Zimbabwean crisis would most likely scuttle any effort at agricultural revival, unless government acts to address the economic meltdown in the country.