HARARE – Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) director, Mr Wonder Chabikwa, has urged the government to capacitate small-scale farmers to improve agricultural production so as to close the widening trade imbalances rocking the nation.
This was said following recent statistics from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) which show that the country’s current account deficit since 2009 stands at $20 billion with $2.87 billion worth of imports recorded between February and June this year.
While capital goods such as machinery and equipment for production are dominating the imports, a continuous appetite by Zimbabweans for foreign miscellaneous goods such as processed foodstuffs, pampers, toothpicks and toothbrushes is also affecting the import bill.
Analysts say that there is need to reduce the large numbers in the imports of consumptive goods if the economic recovery is to be sustained. This in turn requires the government to focus on reviving the local industries so as to promote local production.
Zimstat said the government needs to expedite production in other key agricultural sectors like coffee tea, citrus, dairy, soya bean and horticulture exports to generate much needed foreign currency so as to achieve a trade balance.
The country’s import earnings is largely driven by minerals and tobacco. Statistics from the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) showed that production this year reached a record breaking 240 million kilogrammes, setting the country on course to reach $1 billion earnings from tobacco exports.
Last year production reached 189 kilogrammes.
The majority of tobacco farmers are small-scale and have over the years largely depended on family provided labour due to poor funding and support from the government.
The level of support for tobacco growers has improved allowing them to increase hectarage and acquire inputs on time through contract farming, which is key to ensuring that target production yields are achieved.
Under the contract system, they are given required inputs like tobacco seed, fertilisers and pesticides.
Contract farming has over the years been considered as one system that has considerable potential for providing a way to integrate small-scale farmers in developing countries into export and processing markets and into the modern economy.
Contract farming has been identified as an important institution for empowering poor small-scale farmers in developing countries, as well as a vehicle for providing access to more lucrative markets.
Further, contract farming offers a mechanism that ensures self-sustained development and has also been a component of the most successful income-generating projects for smallholders, as well as an important earner of foreign exchange in developing countries.
Going forward to the next season, farmers have expressed optimism on the back of high expectations to get better funding from the government and contractors.
Government is already distributing farming inputs under the Command Agriculture programme and the Presidential Inputs Scheme.
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