By the Goromonzi class of 1994 WhatsApp group
Covid-19 has disrupted our livelihoods and the systems that support them. While the magnitude of its impacts yet to be fully understood, it is unambiguous that as a country and as Zimbabweans we now need to reflectively re-think, re-imagine and re-build our great nation.
We, the members of the Goromonzi form four class of 1994, undertook a thought experiment in our whatsapp group. We present here thoughts to start a conversation on how we should all work towards building our country starting with our agriculture sector in a post-COVID-19 Zimbabwe.
As these thoughts were birthed during a non-structured WhatsAPP group discussion, they may come through as a mixed salad – with a bit of everything.
The basis of our thought experiment is that our nation cannot afford to fail on agriculture as it is the sector upon which everything else is based and built. Therefore, it is important for us to all work towards building resilient and sustainable agricultural value chains.
There definitely is a need to increase our investments in research on indigenous crops and also consider expanding our crop diversity by considering testing and introducing other high value crops grown elsewhere, under subtropical and tropical conditions.
The large area of highly permeable sandy soils is a huge challenge to our agricultural productivity as these soils do not hold water for extended periods of time. The water holding challenges on these soils are exacerbated by the high frequency in droughts.
To overcome this challenge there is a need to increase investments in the local production of low-cost irrigation equipment. This will both create employment and solve a real-life problem faced by farmers working on sandy soils.
Concurrently, there is a need for investments in water-harvesting infrastructure (e.g., on-farm dams) to ensure there is water for irrigation during dry periods. Investments in boreholes and wells should also be considered to gain access to subsurface water resources.
Another approach could be to invest in desilting rivers and dams to increase their water storage capacity. All these options would create huge employment opportunities.
Increasing crop diversity and access to water should increase the number of farmers that produce multiple crops per year. In light of recent climatic changes, heavy reliance on monocropping and rainfed agriculture is no longer a prudent approach to farming.
Farmers should move from following blanket fertilizer recommendations to more soil-test based recommendations. To achieve this, we need to consider moving towards universal access to soil testing facilities. Expanding soil testing facilities will, simultaneously, create employment.
To maximize resource use, we may need to consider strengthening linkages between credit facilities available to farmers and extension support service.
Making it mandatory for farmers receiving loans to receive guidance from experts on how to use the availed financial resources will incentivize the adoption of improved management practices and technology and also simulate the curiosity and creativity of extension support staff.
There is a need to consider increasing investments in the training of local youths as para-extension officers on crops and livestock produced in the respective regions.
In this way, knowledge on better farming methods and tools will be available in the specific regions for the current and next generation of farmers. In addition, the training of local youths should serve as an opportunity to increase interest in farming among the youth.
There is a need to increase investments aimed at increasing access to extension support services for urban farmers. This could also create employment opportunities among the youth.
Extension staff should consider working closely with artists to combine entertainment with dissemination of extension messages. This will create work opportunities in the arts and extension.
There is a need to explore the multiple alternative uses of all the products we produce, to maximize the value of our agricultural produce.
This can be done by investing in large and small agro-industries that add value and find alternative uses for agricultural produce. We do not need to reinvent the wheel, in all cases, as we can learn from other cultures and modify to fit our contexts and markets.
There is a need to ensure that we are maximizing our land. The monitoring of land utilization can be done cost effectively using satellite images and free internet platforms. Investments should be made to visit farms that appear to be under-utilized, to understand the reasons and jointly explore mechanisms to ensure their maximum utilization.
In cases where farmers indicate an inability to utilize the land, there may be need to consider re-distribution of the underutilized land to Zimbabweans with the capacity to utilize the land. The monitoring of land-utilization should be continuously conducted at district or even ward level.
There is a need to explore more viable, transparent and sustainable mechanisms for improving farmers access to affordable capital. Financing should be based on clear plans, the implementation of which is monitored by the relevant ministries and other stakeholders.
For instance, as mentioned earlier, the activities of farmers that receive financial support should be activity supported by financial and agricultural experts who must visit the financed pieces of lands to assess and monitor progress from planning to produce marketing.
There may be a need to consider new and improved agricultural business models that are biased towards exporting after meeting local demand. The national mindset should shift towards viewing small and medium scale farmers as potential exporters.
This can be done through better farmer organization and linkages from ward to national level. Farmers with production systems oriented towards export could receive more support at the different organizational levels; farm produce from the different provinces can then be combined and packaged for export.
This suggestion is inspired by how tobacco farmers and buyers are linked amongst themselves and with export markets. There are success stories around us and we need to learn from them and improve other stories that may currently not be as successful.
There is now need to consider expanding our search for solutions to include both traditional and non-traditional agricultural stakeholders. By investing in idea challenges we can expand our search for solutions to include more minds.
These were some of the ideas we discussed on changes to consider in the post-COVID era. We are currently discussing the public health, education and finance sector and plan to share the results of our thought experiment in the coming weeks.