(THE HERALD) Zimbabwe Landreform: We're Not About Tractors Per Se: Made
Zimbabwe: We're Not About Tractors Per Se: MadeThe Herald (Harare)
Published by the government of Zimbabwe
INTERVIEW
3 March 2007
JUST like the initial Development Cabinet that came up with two new ministries that stirred debate among the people, the recent mini-reshuffle came up with another new ministry, Agriculture Engineering and Mechanisation, that has sent tongues wagging. Some have dubbed it a "ministry of tractors" while others believe it is another atomisation of the Agriculture Ministry. The Herald caught up with the head of that ministry, DR JOSEPH MADE, to talk about this and other issues pertaining to his new portfolio.
Dr Made, you are heading a new Ministry of Engineering and Mechanisation, can you briefly tell our readers the scope of your work?
Let me first of all say the Ministry of Agriculture Engineering and Mechanisation, in broad terms, signifies a gap both perceived as well as real that exists. Particularly having successfully dealt with the land issue, land acquisition, land distribution, and now wanting to address the issues of agriculture production and productivity relating to that particular land. That's one side. The second aspect of that land is also the desire to re-organise and to effectively utilise, the communal areas, the communal sector because remember the premise of land reform was also to decongest the communal areas and to replan those communal areas. So that is the premise within which, I think, that we should look at probably the issues of agriculture engineering and mechanisation.
But coming back to the major functions of the ministry, I must say that these functions we are still defining them though: One of the principal issues that we must look at is quickly producing a comprehensive strategy on engineering and mechanisation of agriculture production activities. Here we cannot pretend that we are inventing a new wheel because there is already a certain level of agriculture engineering and mechanisation in our agriculture. But I think we want to give greater emphasis to those activities that are much more focused on modernising the agriculture sector. The aspect is researching, testing, adopting and adapting appropriate agriculture engineering technologies and mechanisation techniques and the development of the agriculture machinery and equipment and tools.
This, I think, is going to be the hallmark, in actual fact, of the new ministry and structures so that we are able to maintain again that course which we are saying is not a question of re-inventing some of the tools, machinery and equipment. I think we want to quickly move into the question of adapting and the question of adoption. If you look at technologies in Europe and Asia, in Central America, even in North America itself, you will see that most of the technology developed on the basis of adopting, on the basis of researching your own ideas.
The third aspect would be the provision of engineering and mechanisation technologies, in land, soil and water conservation. You will note that when we talk of the communal areas, the aspect of land, soil and water conservation is a very critical aspect.
Water conservation can also be dealt with in the sense that you can deal with drainage, to take out water, but you can also deal with conserving the water so that you utilise it for purposes of applying it to the crop, or for purposes of applying it to livestock. The Ministry of Water has dealt with dam construction, but a lot of our dams are suffering from siltation. I am not only referring to the communal areas; I am also referring even to the commercial sector. There are certain conservation works that have got to be carried out from an engineering point of view as well as from a mechanisation point of view.
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The fourth function is the establishment of an effective, efficient and viable tillage and harvesting programme maybe at this point you might say, now that we are already cropping and so on. We are already preparing for the winter crop, so an effective tillage and harvesting programme will make us achieve a number of issues. If we can be able to harvest our crop, say at crop maturity or at the right time in relationship to the next planting date or the next date of land preparation, I think it will be very critical for us to enhance particularly the timing of our planting.
I think if we come up with a model that will enable the farmer to effectively and efficiently utilise the fuel, the limited fuel that is there, I think that will also be critical. I want to join this point together with the aspect of draught power, remember when we talk of engineering and mechanisation; we are talking of both tractive power, which is animal-drawn, as well as the tractor-drawn implements -- machinery and equipment. So we want to look at both. It is at this particular stage that we even want to reintroduce competitions at ward level, district level and even at provincial level -- to look at tillage.
But a much more serious issue that the ministry will be interested in is the aspect of the private sector. I have already met 17 companies that deal with the acquisition of machinery and equipment that include Zimplow -- who are the largest producer of ox-drawn implements, particularly the plough. Including also those that produce scotch carts for purposes of transportation. To me, what will be very critical are the workings that we are going to have between Government-related institutions and the private sector as it also provides services. We must really come to the table and I must address that exercise. The group, as represented by ADMA, they are busy writing a document -- which is a proposal that we are going to be putting to the RBZ Governor in the short term, we want to work together so that we can see to what extent we can allocate resources so that they are effective in either looking at old machinery and equipment so that we can clean them, we can recondition them.
Zimbabwe: We're Not About Tractors Per Se: Made
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The fifth aspect that the ministry is going to be dealing with is the establishment of post-harvest handling facilities of all agricultural produce at the farm level. If you look at the areas where we have acquired land, you will find that now, there are crop dryers, which is quite a heavy investment.
We want to revamp these crop dryers so that we are able to harvest a crop when it is, say, at 20 percent moisture, it is already mature for purposes of seed. Even at 34 percent moisture, in terms of maize, it is already mature. So we want to revamp these so that we can see the way we can speed up removing the crop from the fields and have the field ready for the next crop.
Sixth point deals with provision of technical services in some structures. On the farms, I have already mentioned that you talk of infrastructure that will be mainly developed by the Ministry of Water and Infrastructure Development. There are also other infrastructures that will be required by the farmer, from this ministry, from an engineering point of view; we will be looking at that. From a mechanisation point of view, there are certain buildings where you have got to place certain machinery for it to be able to function, either as a storage unit or either as a drying unit, or as a cooling unit.
We will also want to look at the training aspect. The extension provision relating to mechanisation and engineering will be one of the most critical elements. We can have new tractors, combines, but the saying is that machinery can be a write-off and be as old as one minute, why? Because a single mistake in operating some of these machines can permanently damage a brand-new piece of equipment. So training will come in. So these are a few of the functions, but there many more. So you can see this ministry is much more than about tractorisation.
Very extensive indeed, but Minister the Land Reform Programme was premised on rural empowerment, and such empowerment should of necessity be driven by mechanisation. But the majority of the people were disenfranchised for centuries, and thus may not have the resources to afford the technology. How do you hope to get around that?
It's a chicken-and-egg situation. The majority of our people were marginalised and they must access the technology that they may not afford. Maybe the best model at the moment is we should pay fair prices. We would like to see a situation where the farmers are paid fully for the cost of production, and we should capacitate Government institutions so that they charge commercial rates. But I think the most important aspect is that we have to continue debating as we have to introduce a full cost-recovery model. I am looking at the prison farms, for example; they may assist in serving the farmers in a particular area. I will also not shy away from talking about institutions like DDF, I think over the years they have done a commendable job. There are tractors that are coming, we should be satisfied that if we are in a certain region that we said we want to empower, it is empowered. Currently we are going to be taking a census of the machinery that is working and get it to work efficiently, and also act on the equipment that is not working and get it to work. Industry has already indicated their willingness to work with us.
Minister, some white farmers sabotaged equipment and machinery when the farms they held were about to be acquired. Tied to that are the challenges of the brain drain that has robbed Zimbabwe of skilled manpower. How do you hope to get around the problem of rehabilitating the machinery in light of the manpower challenges?
Maybe 20 to 30 percent of the 25 000 tractors in the country are working. Let's talk of the equipment that the farmers put in the barns, we are quickly identifying this equipment, but the major issue is paying compensation for this equipment.
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I am happy to say that some of the equipment had already been put for disposal. Some of it, of course, will need a large consignment of spare parts. It is important to note that some of the old commercial farmers were not investing in new equipment and machinery, and some of the equipment on the farms is 20 to 25 years old, but they should be commended for having kept it in working order for so long. There are some of them who have realised that the battles for the land reform programme have been won by the Government. Some of these farmers who are no longer farming, we have invited them to provide the services, and we will pay them for that.
Coming now to the issue of engineering, we are going to be working with the Ministry of Youth, Ministry of Education, the universities and the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education in the field of engineering. There are two issues that pertain to engineering: The complex aspect of putting up a new piece of equipment.
We must invest in individuals with the skills, first of all, of maintenance -- the applied aspect of technology. Here I think we have a critical mass we can work with. On the manpower side, there is a committee sitting with NEDPP looking at retention of manpower. There are a lot of skilled people on the ground. But we must never lose sight of the importance of training the people who use the equipment, for instance, training drivers, I can assure you we can go a long way. The people we have should be able to work with the equipment if it is to work efficiently. We are having discussions with the UNDP, FAO; we have programmes with Iran, Algeria, China. For the machines that are coming, we attach great importance to proper maintenance. This is why we are sending some of our engineers to these countries to see how the machines are assembled.
Zimbabwe: We're Not About Tractors Per Se: Made
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Two questions, Minister: We want to mechanise our agricultural sector but without a strong manufacturing base we have to import most of the equipment. Which brings in the question of the foreign currency shortages. How do we reconcile that?
I think we need to be clear on what we mean by mechanisation. It ranges from a simple tool like the hoe that you use to work in your garden, that is the first level. The second level is the level of tractorisation, irrigation development and so forth, that is, really modernising agriculture. For instance, in irrigation we already have equipment like centre pivots, drip irrigation pipes, boom sprays.
When you link it to the land reform programme where the level of mechanisation was clearly only dealing with 15 percent of the land, when you are looking at equipment that is 20 to 25 years old, we must phase it out gradually. And maybe look at a 10-year mechanisation programme, say 1 500 tractors, in the next four years. What becomes critical is that farmers know how to use the equipment efficiently, for instance not using a 110-horsepower tractor drawing a four-wheel trailer to go and pick up labourers. Such a tractor must be effectively used in the fields to generate foreign currency.
There are also aspects of maintenance. If you have a brand new tractor and give it to an untrained driver who does not even know how to check oil, or the number of hours after which it should be taken for service, then that tractor will not last long. We must talk to industry, for instance the 17 companies involved in manufacturing various equipment, among them Farmec, Bain, Zimplow. Several of them have said we want to talk to Government. There are several little things that we take for granted, like calibration of equipment, that impact on productivity.
There are so many Government departments and quasi-Government departments involved in various aspects of agricultural engineering or procurement talk of DDF, IDC, Arex, the Department of Agriculture and even the RBZ. How are you going to relate to them and isn't there duplication of duties?
I want to allay those fears. Agricultural engineering permeates many sectors, Government departments or parastatals; and I see all those entities from a support aspect. There are obviously aspects of agricultural engineering in which we will take a leading role, and others where we will play supporting roles.
Take the Ministry of Science and Technology Development, for instance. It has a leading role in giving us some of the technology used by our farmers; the Ministry of Energy supplies us with fuel. You also have blacksmiths, artisans and manufacturers involved. To me, it all comes down to effective co-ordination and consultation. Our emphasis will be on the farmers' unions.
The question is: Who should we understand effectively? It is the farmer, the new farmer, and the old farmer. We will be requiring, for example, an animal census, and you can only do that when you talk to the Ministry of Agriculture. We should understand the plight of the farmer.
We will be approaching a new season shortly and also looking at winter wheat, the question of draught power. How prepared are we?
Our objective is to carry out a quick survey to establish the state of machinery and equipment, and, secondly, animal-drawn power and implements. We have a programme that is going to be dealing with animal-drawn implements. We are looking to establish a fund.
This week we drew up a document from the 17 companies involved in agriculture implements. We have tractors that are already in place, and we have already had questions in the media and in Parliament as to who will benefit from the tractors. I think they will go a long way in complementing the tillage programme. There is machinery and equipment available for individuals and institutions.
We have tended to rely on rain-fed agriculture. What can the nation expect from your ministry in moving away from this reliance on the benevolence of nature?
Under these circumstances, it sometimes comes down to the way you plough your land, the way you use a reaper, a plough. The way you plough can determine the moisture retention.
You can plough in such a way that you can hold the moisture or get it out of the field. Rain-fed agriculture is a subject that will preoccupy us, and the first stage comes down to the way you prepare your land.
You should do it in such a way that you retain moisture. You will see as we establish our departments that we will be focusing a lot on that. It is also a question of the crops you grow; we have in particular different regions suited to different crops.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, LAND, LAND REFORM, MECHANISATION, TRACTORISATION, ZIMBABWE
posted by MrK @ 5:15 AM
4 Comments:
Great seeing Zimbabwe take land and agricultural reform very seriously.
They should be helped all the way, and their experiences should be learned from.
MrK,
Thanks again for providing details on the ongoing struggle for land and agricultural reform in the region! I also see this sort of acknowledgement that rural farmers require support from government and institutions beyond simple land distribution as a hopeful sign.
While the needs of the Zimbabwe agricultural sector are grave and urgent in the near term, I am concerned that the understandable drive toward improved harvest outputs will lead to a deepening institutionalization of unsustainable land use practices. Corporate agribusiness is pushing hard to encourage farming in Africa which relies heavily on external inputs and single crop yield maximization models. Such models may be effective in producing bumper crops during years when weather conditions are optimal, but are disastrous for food security in times of drought or areas experiencing soil degradation.
The upcoming NEPAD Africa Fertilizer Summit next month in Nigeria will provide an opportunity for voices concerned about the future of food security on the continent to be heard alongside those of the corporate lobbyists.
http://www.ifoam.org/organic_facts/food/Africa_Fertilizer_Summit.html
The primary goal of land reform is not production of more food, rather diversification of access to food production to a greater proportion of the population and especially to the poorest elements within it. To quote Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, "Starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there being not enough food to eat."
Yakima,
" While the needs of the Zimbabwe agricultural sector are grave and urgent in the near term, I am concerned that the understandable drive toward improved harvest outputs will lead to a deepening institutionalization of unsustainable land use practices. Corporate agribusiness is pushing hard to encourage farming in Africa which relies heavily on external inputs and single crop yield maximization models. Such models may be effective in producing bumper crops during years when weather conditions are optimal, but are disastrous for food security in times of drought or areas experiencing soil degradation. "
Absolutely right. That is why I am against agribusiness, and for the creation of hundreds (thousands) of medium sized farms.
The greater crop variation alone reduces the need for chemical pesticides, herbicides, etc.
The presence of far more farmers means that the crops can get far more attention, that land is used far more efficiently, etc.
And because people are much more closely engaged, they can use their own creativity to come up with new crops, new markets, etc.
" The upcoming NEPAD Africa Fertilizer Summit next month in Nigeria will provide an opportunity for voices concerned about the future of food security on the continent to be heard alongside those of the corporate lobbyists. "
I'm going to write the minister in Zimbabwe about organic fertilizer.
You can make great fertilizer from worm castings and some of the last crop. Extremely effective, and 100% organic. It even adds to the microbial life of the soil, where chemical fertilizers and pesticides kill everything.
Sustainable agriculture, conservation farming, permaculture, combined with engaging the entire rural population, is the way to go. And tractorisation is extremely important too, because larger pieces of land must be farmed. (Now the waiting is only for tractors that run on biofuel.)
Entire farm blocks would be completely selfsufficient - no more importation of fuel, fertilizer, etc. There would be lots of employment and incomes would rise dramatically.
" The primary goal of land reform is not production of more food, rather diversification of access to food production to a greater proportion of the population and especially to the poorest elements within it. To quote Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, "Starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there being not enough food to eat." "
Actually land reform would result in much more land being under cultivation, so it most definitely would produce much more food. No matter what Amyarta Sen says. :) What is important is that as many people as possible are involved.
" The upcoming NEPAD Africa Fertilizer Summit next month in Nigeria will provide an opportunity for voices concerned about the future of food security on the continent to be heard alongside those of the corporate lobbyists. http://www.ifoam.org/organic_facts/food/Africa_Fertilizer_Summit.html "
Well I'm looking forward to reading about that. It should be interesting to see how strong the voices for organic fertilizer are.
Mr.K
I was recently in Zimbabwe and actually met Dr. Joesph Made the Minister and I'm sure you will find him quite receptive to your ideas. His backgroung is agriculture and he's quite knowledgable in that area and has a passion for farming.
About two years ago I came across a retired civil servant in Ndola and this man is now a small farmer. What impressed me was the fact that this man had realised that by growing "local maize" and employing good conservation practises he was able to to harvest a good crop year in without having to worry about chemical fertilizers.
Anyway I am digressing. Good luck with Dr. Made.
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