Maravi

(HERALD) Investment, hope lost in a flash

Investment, hope lost in a flash
Saturday, 15 January 2011 19:36
By Charlotte Musarurwa

MRS Alice Chiwashira, a 65-year-old granny from Harare’s Kuwadzana suburb, cannot hold back her tears.

She had invested so much in her small field on the outskirts of the suburb, sometimes foregoing meals for her to buy inputs. But she lost all her investment and hopes of an improved food security situation in a flash.

The Harare City Council has controversially embarked on a mission to slash thriving maize crops grown on open spaces in the city.

Mrs Chiwashira is one of the victims of the policy which has taken many residents by surprise.

The city council’s decision comes despite the fact that urban farming is being touted as one of the easiest solutions to food security in towns.

Mrs Chiwashira said she had been sustained by urban farming since 1985, but was taken aback when she recently fell victim to the council’s decision.

What confused Mrs Chiwashira was that she knew that the Government was in full support of urban farming, having distributed inputs to such farmers only last year.
It all happened on Christmas Day when she had foregone celebrations to work in her “field”.

“They came and slashed my maize without saying a word to me,” said Mrs Chiwashira.
“I felt powerless because I could do nothing to stop them. I had sacrificed my time during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays to work on this field that I looked up to it to sustain my family.”

Mrs Chiwashira said she was embarrassed by the act because she had forced her grandchildren to join her in weeding the field on Christmas Day.

The children, she said, wondered at why they had “wasted” their time by coming to the “field” instead of enjoying Christmas with their peers.

“We received free inputs and fertilisers from the Government as support for the small-scale farmers, but what pained most was the energy and time that I spent on this field,” said Mrs Chiwashira.

“I know that the Governor of Harare (Cde David Karimanzira) has always urged us to utilise the idle land. What wrong have we done now?”

Mrs Chiwashira expressed her disappointment as she said the slashed maize that she had planted had almost reached maturity stage.

“It was like a mystery as I watched my maize being wiped out by the city workers,” she said.

“Every year, my grandchildren and I depend on that maize for family consumption. We are still surviving from the maize that we harvested from this same field last year.”
Another Kuwadzana resident, Mr Claude Chimbuto, said it seemed the city authorities had targeted Kuwadzana in their initial phase of slashing the maize crop.

He said the city workers had come to slash the maize crop on three occasions since December last year.

They had been replanting each time the crops were slashed, but they had now lost hope of going back to the “fields”. Council had been very strict this year,” said Mr Chimbuto.

“We are against this move. Instead of concentrating on service delivery which includes garbage collection, they are busy disadvantaging the residents.”
The city council has since proffered the reason that some murders had taken place in the maize fields last year because of the cover provided to thieves by the crops.

Some residents support the idea “if it is going to ensure that we are safe from the robbers”.

For some time, the residents of Kuwadzana have been complaining that they have to travel home earlier than usual to avoid being mugged by robbers when they follow footpaths in the fields.

The situation had been made worse with the electricity load shedding which ensures there is more darkness.

More than seven people were last year murdered while passing through the maize fields in Kuwadzana alone, with several more deaths reported in other parts of Harare.
Harare City Council spokesperson Mr Leslie Gwindi said there was nothing wrong with urban farming as long as the farmers stick to designated areas.

“There are some cases of murder which were recorded last year,” he said.
“People should not take advantage of the land that is not being used by the council to open up their fields.

“The fact that the land is idle does not mean that it is legal to clear it for farming. The maize crop also obstructs road users.”

Mr Gwindi said the instruction to slash maize actually came from the police who were concerned after two people were murdered last year while using footpaths in the fields.

Some of the urban farmers are involved in stream bank cultivation which compromises the environment.

Mr Gwindi last year warned residents against practising stream bank cultivation, saying council would not hesitate to take tough action against those in the habit.

Stream bank cultivation has become popular in areas such as Mabvuku, Dzivaresekwa and Chitungwiza.

If properly done, urban agriculture contributes to food supplies for urban people.

According to some researches, the role of urban agriculture in the food supply chain to cities and towns, as a complement to rural agriculture, is becoming an important issue in the Sadc region.

There is evidence that urban agriculture is increasing in many urban areas, sometimes dramatically, particularly in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania.

Research has also noted that poor families spend 60 percent or more of their income on food, whilst city dwellers pay 10-13 percent more of their income on food compared to rural inhabitants.

There is no doubt that urban agriculture is an important socio-economic activity for the urban poor, particularly for the developing countries.

In the past, urban farming in Zimbabwe was a rare activity among the residents, but the situation has since changed in recent years.

The food shortages that were experienced in the past years forced many to venture into urban farming as a way of subsidising their income.

A recent report by the Municipal Development Partnership Programme shows that the expansion of urban farming is a worldwide phenomenon that has caught the attention of policymakers and funding agencies.

It is generally considered as a new response to issues of food security, economic and development and poverty alleviation.

Yet the issue of slashing maize by the Harare City Council has courted controversy, with some councillors castigating the move, saying it was not a council resolution.
The chairman of the Environmental Committee, Councillor Herbert Gomba, said his committee had never discussed such an issue.

“We have no policy to slash maize,” he said. “We are investigating that and we will ensure that whoever did it is punished. We believe we must be proactive to stop the cultivation rather than to cut down thriving maize crops.

“We never had such a decision that maize should be slashed, some council employees have made their decision without consulting us or informing us.”

Councillor Gomba said they were inundated with reports that many residents were wondering why council did not support urban farming.

He said council would hold a meeting on January 27 to discuss the issue.
The councillors would want to discover who exactly authoritised the employees to slash the maize.

But it remains to be seen if the council would stop its action, considering that it contravenes utterances by Government officials encouraging urban farming.
Comments

Labels: HARARE CITY COUNCIL, MAIZE, MDC, URBAN FARMING

posted by MrK @ 7:58 AM