Let farming be for farmers

By Cathy Buckle

Can recent media reports on the brainwave from the new head of Zifa really be true?

Apparently newly re-elected Zifa president Cuthbert Dube is going to embark on farming projects in order to turn Zifa’s fortunes around.

Not being a football person, I never thought farming had anything at all do with football but then neither did I envisage earning $230 000 a month had anything to do with overseeing the provision of medical care to civil servants, pensioners and other hard-working Zimbabweans.

“Maybe some people will ask if I’m still alright in my head, but we are going to diversify into farming in a very big way,” Dube said when talking about his second term at the helm of Zifa.

Dube said sponsors were ‘‘sinking financially’’ which was why he had decided to reduce dependence on commercial funding for football and embark on farming instead.

“We have got the land reform programme,” Dube said, adding that he had already started talking to what he called the “responsible ministry” which he has apparently asked for several farms around the country.

Dube did not give any information as to what he knows about farming or what agricultural experience he has.

Is this really what Zimbabwe’s land reform programme was about?

Was it not to give land to the landless?

Dube was quoted by the BBC as saying: “We are going to do cattle ranching and crop farming, and there is no way you can fail.”

If that is the case then why are we still having to import 80 percent of the food we eat 14 years after the land redistribution programme?

There’s nothing at all easy about farming which is why we are even importing $1 million worth of fruit and vegetables every month; why we are not even able to grow enough of our two staple grain crops, maize and wheat, to satisfy local demand?

If farming was such an easy way to make money why are we not churning out millionaires everyday?

Why are farmers continually begging for free inputs: seed, fertiliser, fuel, chemicals and tractors?

Dube’s statement: “We’ve got the land reform programme,” is at the core of why agriculture in Zimbabwe has been on the decline since 2000.

Farming is not a game for anyone to dabble in, it is a serious business requiring people who know what they’re doing.

People with resources, knowledge, experience and the ability to be on the land every single day.

We must question what Dube thinks he is going to get on these farms he has asked for?

Is he blind to the state of the country’s commercial farms? The fences are gone, infrastructure has collapsed immovable assets have been stripped; boreholes no longer function, pumps have gone and dams have broken walls.

There are countless questions that require answers from Dube: Who would run these farms for Zifa?

Where will the money come from to pay managers and farm workers?

Have they forgotten about their burgeoning debts?

Where will that money come from to buy the cattle; erect the fences that have been stolen; repair or replace cracked and leaking water reservoirs?

Then there is the issue of dip tanks, feed tins, facilities and equipment for vaccinating, dosing and treating livestock.

In the case of the crops that Dube says cannot fail to make money they are still many considerations; tractors and ridgers; water pumps and irrigation systems; seed, fertiliser and chemicals.

Farming is for farmers; football is for football players.

Pay attention to football Zifa and let farmers pay attention to farming.