Posted on 01/30/2003 5:58:11 AM PST by Clive
RELATIONS seem to be thawing between the government and white commercial farmers evicted under Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform programme, but analysts this week said the reconciliation was too late to save the 2002/2003 agricultural season or ensure the country’s food security.
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, who at the height of the government’s appropriation of white-owned farms refused to meet leaders of the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) saying they were "racist and fascist", held discussions with the CFU last week and this Monday.
The two parties are said to have discussed the possibility of CFU members making available agricultural equipment to farmers resettled under the agrarian reforms, with the CFU leaders being assured that white farmers who wished to continue farming would be allocated land.
"Minister Made personally called (CFU) president (Colin) Cloete on his cellphone and suggested that it was time a meeting was held between him and the CFU," the organisation’s vice president, Doug Taylor Freeme, told the Financial Gazette. "The meeting was an icebreaker."
"(But) at no time did the CFU pledge equipment to the government," he added, refuting claims by Made last week that the white farmers’ union had promised tractors, disc ploughs, combine harvesters, harrows, irrigation pipes and tobacco- curing equipment, among other machinery.
Both subsistence and aspiring black commercial farmers allocated land have been hard hit by the lack of farming equipment and inputs, making it impossible for many of them to prepare their land for planting.
About two months after the start of the 2002/2003 rainy season, a significant proportion of resettled farmers are said to be struggling to secure machinery, seeds, fertilisers and chemicals, which most of them do not have the financial resources to buy or hire.
A government bond issue floated last year to fund farmers resettled under the A2 or commercial farming phase of the land reform programme also failed to raise sufficient funds.
Although Made declined to speak to the Financial Gazette this week, it is also estimated that more than 60 percent of the 50 000 successful applicants for the A2 farming scheme have not taken up their plots, leaving large tracts of land lying idle.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change shadow minister for agriculture Renson Gasela said it was possible that the government had belatedly realised that the new farmers could not drive commercial agriculture without adequate infrastructure.
Although some beneficiaries of the land reform programme have seized equipment left by white farmers forced to abandon their properties, most machinery is stored in warehouses or is being sold.
The rest of the equipment has been taken out of Zimbabwe by farmers who have relocated to neighbouring countries.
Gasela said: "There is the realisation that the new commercial farmers will not be able to drive commercial farming on their own. They need support.
"You will realise that even the people allocated land who took up the farms have failed to get enough inputs, which has only served to worsen the situation."
But analysts said even if experienced white farmers were roped into the land reform programme or provided infrastructure for the reforms, it was too late to save this year’s farming season, which is already underway.
They pointed out that under normal circumstances, most planting would be complete by this time and farmers would only be concerned about whether the country would receive adequate rainfall.
Farmers said even if CFU members applied for and were allocated land and resettled farmers secured adequate resources, it would take years to repair the damage done to Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector, the backbone of the country’s economy.
The seizure of white-owned farms has slashed output from the sector by more than 50 percent in the past year, affecting local companies that rely on farmers for raw materials and markets as well as the country’s exports.
Production of tobacco, Zimbabwe’s main foreign currency earner for instance, is expected to drop to a mere 75 million kilogrammes, from 167 million kgs last year and 216 million kgs in 2001.
The wildlife industry, another foreign currency earner, says it has lost more than $6 billion worth of animals in the past two years because of rampant poaching during the land seizures.
The carnage in the wildlife industry also led to Zimbabwe being denied permission last November by the United Nations’ Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species to sell ivory stocks accumulated over the last five years.
Commentators said government efforts would also not improve food security for close to eight million Zimbabweans who need emergency food aid because of drought and the land reform programme, which have combined to slash food production by more than 60 percent.
They pointed out that Zimbabwe, which could be affected by another drought this year, could remain a food importer for at least another two years because of inadequate rains and instability in the agricultural sector.
Consultant economist John Robertson said: "We have already lost a lot and the challenge now is for the government to give farmers assurances in cast iron form, instead of friendly notes, so that they can continue farming.
"Cosmetic assurances and friendly chats will not work if the farmers are to come back to the farms because they have a lot to do in rebuilding their infrastructure and accessing finance from banks."
Analysts said farmers also had to be careful not to be hoodwinked by the government, which might be using them to portray a positive image to the international community, most of which has turned its back on the ruling ZANU PF party because of its treatment of white farmers, opposition party members, journalists and civic society.
Several countries have imposed smart sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his top hierarchy because of what they say was a flawed presidential election last year as well as human rights abuses, among other concerns.
The Australia-Nigeria-South Africa Commonwealth troika is also expected to decide in March whether Zimbabwe should be ejected from the club of former British colonies, a move analysts say will severely impact on Mugabe’s government.
ZANU PF has been able to defy its critics because of support from its neighbours, all of whom are members of the Commonwealth.
Former CFU regional executive Ben Freeth, now an official of commercial farmers’ pressure group Justice for Agriculture, said: "Everyone can see that the government is basically trying to look for an internal settlement before the meeting of the troika in March."
But he said not many farmers were likely to be taken in by the government’s reconciliatory stance.
He told the Financial Gazette. "There is nothing to discuss because farmers are still being told to leave their farms even when they have received assurances to continue with farming operations."
No commercial farming can take place without an extensive line of credit. As commercial farmers have no income other than from the sale of crops, banks do not lend except on the farmer being able to demonstrate agrarian competence, an adequate workforce and land that can be mortgaged. None of these items can be shown by the squatters.
As to competence, the people who have replaced the commercial farmers are either those who are used to farming rich black alluvial soil and relying on rainfall to water their crops or they are urban dwellers with romantic ideation of the bucolic lifestyle.
Veldt farming is red soil dryland farming and it relies heavily on land preparation, fertilization and irrigation, which means competent impounding of water. Commercial farmers do not rely on rainfall, they use it when it falls and impound it against the sure and certain expectation that there will be failures in rains. They plan for its absence.
As to a workforce, the experienced farmers have been beaten, starved, killed and harried from the land and are now living hard in the bush where they are doing no service to agriculture.
As to mortgaging the land. The new farmers have no title deeds and in any event the experience of the land seizures is that title deeds are precarious in Zim and hence have no value as mortgage security.
As to promises, Zim has amply demonstrated the value of its promises.
Absolutely clive.
I hesitate to confer judgement on the CFU, but their groveling is like the dog who's been kicked but still greets his master.
Shame.
In my opinion, any whites still in Zimbabwe at this stage of the game are candidates for honorary Darwin awards and deserve the inevitable result of their stupidity.
In North America we have gotten out of he habit of thinking in terms of leaseholds as being property and tend to think of propertiy as being principally a fee simple absolute in possession and to denegrate a term of years in possession. We think of leases as being something short term.
But in many parts of the common law, (England, for example) there is still an active market in long term leases. The purchaser relies on the remaining number of years and the renewability of the lease to determine its value.
So a farmer can move to Mozambique, for instance, which is offering 50 year leases to dispaced Zim commercial farmers, and can accept such a lease and pledge it as security for his line of credit.
Such a lease is worthless in Zim as the government of Zim has a demonstrated willingness to repudiate land tenures and confiscate land without compensation and without regard to the rights of secured creditors.
I have said it before and I say it again here.
Colin Cloete is an appeaser of the first water.
'
I sure wouldn't loan a farmer anything under these conditions.
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