Maravi

(STICKY) (HERALD) ‘If you don’t pay, you won’t win’

COMMENT - Since colonialism, the lie has been spread that Africans are 'bad farmers'. The truth, is that Africans are great farmers. They can farm on the run (chitemene, derisively named 'slash and burn'), and they can farm in the desert (see: Misreading The African Landscape, on the desert islands of Kissidougou).

‘If you don’t pay, you won’t win’
By Isdore Guvamombe
Sunday, 09 January 2011 19:12

THE farm is nestled in a valley surrounded by a blue-tinged mountain range, euphemistically referred to as the Mvurwi, by the local Korekore people.

Nationally and geomophologically, the mountain range is called the Great Dyke Range — that huge backbone of Zimbabwe famed for its vast mineral resources, ranging from chrome to vanadium and gold, among others. The mountain range superimposes itself from Shurugwi to Guruve and on its foot, lies Lot 4 of Gomo Farm, just a spitting distance from the mountain’s final stretch to Dande.

Once you have driven to lot 4 of Gomo Farm through a dirt road, you will be forgiven to think the farm is being run by a multi-national company.

Tractors, motorbikes and vehicles criss-cross the farm roads in different directions for specific errands.

Workers on tractor-trailers or in the back of trucks or on foot do the same, all for the prosperity of production.

That hyper activity exudes the aura of some big company running a farm.
You will soon be surprised to find out that the owner is a beneficiary of the land reform programme, who never owned an inch of land before President Mugabe’s land reform.

Production levels in terms of maize, tobacco and soyabean, are unbelievably high and would make any discerning white former Rhodesian commercial farmer green with envy.
This is the story of Sydney Gwaze and his wife Concellia.

For 26 years, Gwaze worked for white commercial farmer Michael Mcgrath at Syalima Farm. All he got was a motorbike, yet in contrast, in the 10 years of the land reform he is a proud owner of a fleet of six tractors, nine vehicles, four motorbikes, 60 cattle and 70 pigs, among other things.

“The greatest thing to ever happen to my life, is the land reform programme. I worked for 26 years for nothing for that white man at Siyalima Farm. He promised me a lot of things that he never delivered and at the end of 26 years, all I had was a motorbike, yet he had everything.

“The way I am farming here is my personal way of thanking President Mugabe for giving me land. I was abused by the white man and we should not regret the land reform,’’ quips Gwaze, who employs 116 permanent workers and often engages contract workers. He also employs a manager and four foremen of all them with either motorbike or car for use.

While his farm of 111 hectares has only 35 ha of arable land, hence Gwaze is leasing land from his neighbours and that has enabled him to put 35 ha under tobacco, 17 ha under soya-bean and 40 ha of maize.

Among his equipment are planters, boom-sprays, six tractors (a 440 Extra, another 440 Extra two-wheeler, a Landini 786, a 6860 four-wheeler, another 6860 two-wheeler and a Messy Furgerson.

Gwaze has in the same decade acquired three lorries, a Mazda T-35, a Toyota Vigo, a Ford Ranger pick up truck, a Nissan Hardbody truck, a Toyota Corolla (Bubble), A Toyota 2,4 D.

“I had nothing when I worked for that white man. My father was a farm worker there and after school I joined the workers there, but I eventually went to the Tobacco Training Institute and got a Diploma in Tobacco Production. I still worked for nothing.

“At the advent of the land reform, I got an A1 plot at the same farm but four years ago, I moved to this place because I proved that the land was too small for me.

“Here I am finding the land too small again and everything permitting, I would love to move to a bigger farm. Only 35 ha of my 111 ha are arable, the rest are valleys and mountains. That is why it is called Gomo Farm.

“Renting land from my neighbours is also difficult because when they want to use their land, they take it back. I also till their fields in exchange of farming land. In short it is difficult to plan for the next season, on a leased piece of land,’’ he said. By how did Gwaze manage to acquire all this property and equipment?

“Farming is business. Last year, I sold 151 tonnes of tobacco. I mean business. First I was getting loans from AgriBank and repaying and some friends linked me to Mashonaland Tobacco Company, where after years of working with them, now give me no limits in terms of my farming requirements. The land is the limit here.

“I get loans and repay them. The problem with most of our farmers is that when they get loans in terms of inputs, they sell them or if they get cash, they don’t pay back.

“When you borrow, you must pay back. That is business. Once you have a good record, you can get anything. So I encourage all farmers to pay back and become credit worthy,’’ he says.

On his workers, Gwaze says he has no shortage of labour because he pays them well.

“You will never be successful without happy workers. At the end of the selling season, I bought my foremen motorbikes, I bought my manager a car, I bought 10 of my senior workers double beds, others sofas, others plates and so on. They are very happy, you can actually talk to them.

“I am currently building houses for them and I want them to have decent accommodation. The more happy the workers are, the more they work. I turn away many people looking for work, because they know I pay.

“If I happen to get a bigger farm, I will start afresh and build again,’’ he said.

isadore.guvamombe@zimpapers.co.zw

Labels: A1 FARMERS, LAND REFORM, NEW FARMERS

posted by MrK @ 5:54 PM