Zimbabwe: Agricultural Show - a Mockery of Farmers

Source from:  Zimbabwe Standard (Harare) 23 August 2008 08/27/2008

THIS year's Harare Agricultural Show, which opens tomorrow, should have been a historic one, one that would have been a watershed. But instead there will be the same old tired and defiant rhetoric that is only remarkable for its refusal to accept the reality of the sector's precipitous decline. For those with longer memories, no amount of blame can wish away the self-evident truth that this year's show will be a sickly shadow of its former self. This is even reflected in the absence of regional dignitaries officiating at the event. It is a bit embarrassing for anyone to preside over an event while fully aware the sector in question is on its knees and the host country is going to have to require international assistance, even though it is in denial. As many as five million Zimbabweans will require food aid to see them through to March next year -- thanks to the government's disastrous handling of its chaotic so-called land reform programme. The show takes place before the onset of the farming season and a political settlement ahead of the show would have set the stage for a remarkable take-off. But it is up to history to record whether failure to secure a binding political settlement ranks among the catalogue of Zimbabwe's innumerable missed opportunities. There are several undertakings by the government on its support for farmers which, while long on promises, have fallen woefully short on implementation. One example will illustrate the perception by farmers of a farrago of unfulfilled commitments: the majority of the small-scale farmers were exhorted to grow cash crops, among them tobacco. However, a visit to the tobacco sales floors around the capital will reveal the sorry state in which the farmers find themselves after a season of back-breaking work in order to produce tobacco, which the government so badly requires to raise more foreign currency to pay for its unquenchable avarice. The Reserve Bank tried to do something ostensibly to ease the plight of the farmers just before the June 27 presidential election run-off, but we are now the wiser as to its intentions then. The bank was more concerned about paying off the farmers so they would return to their constituencies and vote for President Robert Mugabe. But once they had played their part in the result, they were forgotten, hence the scenes at the various auction floors. Not only are the small-scale farmers having to live in appalling condition while waiting to be paid for their tobacco, they are wasting valuable time that could be better spent in preparations for the next agricultural season. But even more worrying are allegations the farmers raise - missing tobacco bales, under-invoicing of the weight of the crop delivered and transport charges that leave the farmers with absolutely nothing after delivering their tobacco. It is a massive rip-off, which anyone genuinely interested in empowering the farmers and providing incentives for them to grow more of the crop would have acted on to stop the day-light robbery. And the question begs: where are the unions representing these farmers? Have they been completely suborned? Why are they not fighting for a better deal for their members? Where is the central bank and government officials who misled these farmers into growing a crop that gives the producers so many headaches and so few returns? Here again we see the collapse of one of the nation's most profitable industries. And the ruling party still refuses to let go and let somebody else have a chance to put things right. Enditem