(HERALD ZW) Kasukuwere hails organic farming | The Herald
Agriculture Reporter
Farmers should embrace Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) to boost agricultural production and overcome poverty, the Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere, has said.
Minister Kasukuwere said this while officiating at the
Makoni Organic Farmers Association (MOFA) Equator Initiative Award ceremony held at Chiundu High School in Rusape last Friday.
The association was awarded the UNDP Global Equator Prize for 2014 during a ceremony held in Lincoln Centre in New York in September last year.
The Equator Prize is awarded biennially to recognise and advance local sustainable development solutions for people, nature and resilient communities.
Cde Kasukuwere said indigenous people had their peculiar knowledge systems that conserved the environment.
“We had our own traditional values and norms that guided us in preserving natural resources. These should have been documented for use by the future generation.
“If we rely on our IKS, we will never go wrong, we should research and record the indigenous knowledge,” he said.
Cde Kasukuwere said people should learn from the elderly people and follow their ways.
“If we can embrace and scale up initiatives such as organic farming and other sustainable environmental management activities, this will lead to building resilience in vulnerable communities and promote sustainable development,” he said.
He commended the Makoni organic association for using organic methods in crop production as this was healthy and cheaper since the method relied on locally available resources.
“This is a clean way of producing food. Some of the chemicals used in crop production have detrimental effects on human health.
“I urge you to protect the rivers and forests and diversify your operations. You have a reliable water source and you should diversify into fish production to increase income,” he said.
UNDP Resident Representative Mr Bishow Parajuli emphasised MOFA’s contribution to sustainable development through community empowerment and participation, environmental sustainability, gender and health mainstreaming as well as inclusive participation by youth and local communities.
“This is in line with the new UNDP Strategic Plan that stresses the need to find ways of fighting poverty and inequality, deepening inclusion and reducing conflict, without inflicting irreversible damage on environmental systems, including the climate, ” he said.
MOFA chairperson Mrs Tamari Chipanga said the lives of the farmers in the area had greatly improved due to the project of organic farming.
“We rely on natural resources and produce healthy foods for our families. We used to have kitchen gardens but we have increased production and we are now supplying local markets with our produce.
“We have plenty of water but we have a challenge of harnessing it,” she said.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, BISHOW PARAJULI, LAND REFORM, ORGANICS, SAVIOUR KASUKUWERE, SOVEREIGNTY
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Diversify, Panji advises farmers
By Christopher Miti
Wed 05 Feb. 2014, 14:01 CAT
This is excellent advice. Ultimately, we should create farms that don't have inputs, only outputs, and it is possible with permaculture and solar energy. - MrK
COLONEL Panji Kaunda says people are conditioned to thinking that maize is the alpha and the omega of food. In an interview on Monday, Col Panji, who is transport deputy minister but speaking in his capacity as a banana farmer in Sindemisale area of Vubwi district said, the Farmer Input Support Programme was not sustainable.
He said farmers should try other forms of farming that do not require chemical fertilisers.
"There is a lot of information on agroforestry farming where we have trees like Musangu and many others that our scientists have looked upon so that we can do small- scale farming without necessarily applying inputs. If you do this programme, for example, if you put Musangu in your field, within ten years you don't need chemical fertilisers anymore. And that particular farmer will never go back to the government and ask for fertiliser," Col Panji said.
He said agroforest farming was self-sustaining.
"We have over a number of years spent billions of kwacha, a bit of our money and donor funds researching into agroforestry, and it has been proved that these trees and crops that we have worked on do work very well. We have famous Musangu tree, Trephosia, Sesbania, Glyrisdia, Sunhemp, and many others that have been developed," Col Panji said.
He said there was need to migrate the farmers that qualify to the FISP Programme to agroforestry.
"Using the reforestation programme, we must plant the trees that are required in agricultural farming. It should be a requirement for all those who qualify for the FISP programme to also accept the agroforestry one. For two years, we can monitor these farmers to ensure that the trees are being looked after properly. The two years will ensure that trees that are usable in this period are ready for use by the third year. These farmers would then be weaned-off the FISP programme," Col Panji explained.
He said merely delivering inputs to the people does not make them farmers.
"Even the so called 'bumper harvests' that we are so proud of are a mirage. If we compare the amount of seed and fertilisers that are given to the farmers and the maize that we harvest, we will find that we are very much below the minimum numbers of bags that a farmer is expected to get," Col Panji said.
"The question we must ask ourselves as a nation is , 'can we sustain the subsidies on both consumption and production of maize, and still promote the growth of our agriculture to the levels of its potential'? The answer is 'no, we cannot'. Must we abandon the small-scale farmers to fend for themselves? No."
Labels: AGRICULTURE, PANJI KAUNDA
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(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) Farmers predict high yields
Sunday, 12 January 2014 00:00
Mercy Bofu
The Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union (ZFU) has expressed confidence that the country will reach its maize production target of 2,2 million tonnes following the favourable rainfall the country has received in recent weeks.
In an interview last week, ZFU vice-president Mr Berean Mukwende said farmers were also geared towards high output on the back of the input support they received from Government.
He, however, encouraged maize producers who are still planting to wind up and shift focus to other food crops.
“We are encouraged by the downpour and we hope that this continues throughout the season so that we achieve our targeted hectarage, especially on maize where we are targeting 2 million tonnes.
“I am sure this is achievable considering the support that farmers got from the Government. Up to now I can confirm that farmers are still receiving fertilisers under the Government scheme.
“We are also encouraging farmers to wind up the planting of food crops like maize since it is now late. Rather, they can concentrate on crops like sugar beans and cow peas.”
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Mr Wonder Chabikwa concurred, saying the rainfall pattern was encouraging.
“Though some low-lying areas were affected by flooding since they were receiving high rainfall daily, we foresee a great future in terms of yields,” he said.
“We are also expecting increased yields for cotton and tobacco. Many farmers are now in the fifth reaping season.”
Over the past few years, the country has harvested low yields owing to erratic rainfall, forcing authorities to turn to grain imports.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, MAIZE, RAINFALL
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(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) Farmers battle to meet maize hectarage target
Sunday, 22 December 2013 00:00
Sunday Mail Reporter
A combination of factors, including poor funding for farmers and erratic rains, are threatening to choke the country’s bid to plant 1,7 million hectares of maize this season, farmer representative unions have warned.
In separate interviews last week, representatives of some of the leading farmers’ unions in the country disclosed that less than half of the targeted hectarage has been put under maize so far as farmers battle a shortage of inputs.
The erratic rainfall pattern the country has been experiencing so far has seen most farmers stagger planting in a bid to minimise losses that could result from a sustained dry spell.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union (ZCFU) president Mr Wonder Chabikwa conceded that the ordinary farmer is struggling.
“Collectively our farmers are yet to plant half of the targeted hectarage as most of them struggled to secure funding on time while others are still waiting for significant rains before planting,” he said.
“We also have a situation that most of the early planted crop is showing signs of moisture stress and this has also made farmers think twice about continuing with planting before they are convinced that the rainy season is truly upon us.
“The majority of farmers are now scared of dry planting since it has proved to be risky in the recent years after farmers had to replant which would be very expensive considering the cost of inputs.”
Mr Chabikwa, however, revealed that the significant rains that the country received last week should see farmers taking to the field and increasing on the hectarage that has already been put under maize.
“Planting is already at an advanced stage in areas that were receiving rainfall during the period when most parts of the country were experiencing a dry spell.
“These include parts of Masvingo, Matabeleland South and North, Midlands and southern parts of Mashonaland West. However, we expect planting to be in full swing throughout the country on the back of the wet spell we are currently experiencing,” he said.
Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union second vice-president Mr Berean Mukwende said the late rains have forced farmers to turn to early maturity varieties.
“Farmers who are planting now should consider medium to short-term maturity varieties since this is now a short season.
“Planting dates of crops are so important since the maturity period does not only rely on the availability of water but also day length and other factors, which is why we are saying irrigation development should be one of our priorities with the current trends of the country’s rainfall pattern,” he said.
Presenting the 2014 National Budget last week, Finance Minister Cde Patrick Chinamana disclosed maize output is estimated to have dropped to 798 500 tonnes this year, down from 968 041 tonnes in 2012 due to decreased hectarage and input supply challenges.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, MAIZE
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(ZIMBABWELAND) Rethinking agricultural extension
February 3, 2014 · 5:39 am
by prof. Ian Scoones
Zimbabwe’s agricultural extension service, Agritex, was the pride of Africa in the 1980s,
before the ravages of structural adjustment hit in the 1990s. There were extension workers throughout the countryside, and a network of subject matter specialists, most highly experienced and qualified. The quality of the training and advice offered was unparalleled anywhere on the continent, and for a time the service was well resourced with extension workers reasonably paid and with transport and so able to move around.
Today the extension service is a sorry reflection of past glories. Many qualified staff left or passed away (the ravages of HIV/AIDS hit many government services very badly), posts are unfilled, the transport capacity virtually non-existent and the ability to offer up-to-date advice severely hampered by the parallel decimation of government research services. Most farmers rely on private input suppliers, agrodealers and their neighbours for advice these days. Of course there are extension workers in the field, and they are usually extraordinarily committed and informed, despite the poor conditions of their posts. In the communal areas many get additional incentives from NGO programmes, often diverting their work to projects like conservation agriculture or group gardening.
I had some interesting discussions recently with a number of former Agritex staff and resettlement farmers about what they thought of the service today, and what they thought about its future, particularly in the post land reform era. They reminisced about the past of course, and acknowledged how effective Agritex had been, but they were also sanguine about the future. What do the ‘new farmers’ really need?
The discussion identified three important things: information (and particularly up to the minute market and price data), brokering (between farmers and contractors, suppliers, markets and service providers, to ensure that deals struck are fair and regulated) and business management skills (they were confident about agronomy, but not running a business, even a small one: managing accounts, cash flows, investments and the rest). This is a very far cry from the standard Agritex approach, based as it was on the old World Bank Training and Visit system, and of course with its roots in the colonial era with the post of ‘Chief Instructor of Natives’ held by the famous American missionary, E.D. Alvord for many years. Today the emphasis should be very different, my informants suggested.
This would require a total rethink of Agritex, and agricultural extension in general. Indeed a department in the Ministry of Agriculture may not be the appropriate organisational vehicle at all. My informants pointed out that the new farmers, compared to their compatriots in the communal lands, were younger, better educated, more mobile, and with good access to town. They all had mobile phones, and many had smartphones with Internet access. Many were making money, and had investment, marketing and business planning decisions to make, often juggling an agricultural enterprise with other activities. Many women were independent operators, or took on particular roles within a more complex business than the standard communal area farm.
Of course not all resettlement farms are like this, just as not all communal area farms are classic family smallholder farms focused on subsistence agriculture with some off-farm activities. There is a huge diversity, and tailoring approaches to extension and development more generally to different groups is essential. In our study in Masvingo we identified 15 different livelihood strategies across the sample of 400 households in 16 sites that we clustered into four broad types. In a recent DFID-funded initiative three categories are identified that roughly chime with our livelihood types: market oriented surplus producers, smallholders who are surviving and are in need of livelihood support, and those who are struggling and in need of social protection.
Our discussion focused on the first, and some of the second, group. But this is a big and growing proportion of the new farming population, and the one that is really going to get agriculture moving. While social welfare approaches are clearly necessary, if there are to be long-term transitions out of poverty and onto growth paths that are sustainable backing those who are engaging with markets, developing their farms, and investing should be a priority. And supporting such people with the type of service that meets their needs I would argue is a useful public service. Some of it of course could be paid for in time, but as a strategic government investment it could easily be justified.
The new DFID programme is being implemented by FAO, and appears to be focused on ‘training’ focused on building ‘resilience’ through ‘climate smart agriculture’, with a range of high-sounding objectives set. But is this going to be old-style training, rekindling the glory days of 1980s Agritex (although in this case implemented by NGOs) and focused on instruction and demonstration around farming techniques (including conservation agriculture)? Or will it be building capacity around the priorities of information, brokering and business that we identified? There has been a repeated default in new programming by aid agencies as well as government to return to the past, and not rethink for the future. This is $48 million of UK taxpayers’ money, so let’s hope it is better focused than previous efforts, and helps to rebuild an agricultural research and extension capacity in Zimbabwe that is fit for its new purposes.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, AGRITEX, IAN SCOONES
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Agritech Expo to showcase Zambia's agriculture
By Bivan Saluseki
Sun 26 Jan. 2014, 14:00 CAT
ZAMBIA'S booming agriculture sector will be in focus at the country's first and only business-to-business outdoor agriculture exhibition, Agritech Expo, taking place in Chisamba in April.
The Zambia National Farmers Union is a key partner in the April 4-5 event which is expected to draw over 8,000 of the industry's leading farmers, suppliers, manufacturers, retails, agents and service providers.
"Agritech Expo puts Zambia on the map. It is our first business-to-business international farming exhibition and positions Zambia at the same level as our regional partners," ZNFU executive director Ndambo Ndambo said.
"Zambia is a nation on the rise, with an economy projected to be one of the 10 fastest growing in the world between now and 2015," said Agritech Expo event director Liam Beckett.
"At the heart of this growth is Zambia's flourishing agriculture sector, accounting for 35 per cent of the nation's GDP which equates to around $4.5billon in real money. The expansion of small-scale farming and the development of emerging and commercial farms are the key contributors to growth of the agriculture sector in Zambia."
Beckett said the timing of Agritech Expo was therefore perfect.
"It is a full-scale, live agriculture event offering everything from first-hand demonstrations of the latest in large scale agricultural machinery to live crop trials. We want visitors to really be able to get their hands dirty and be able to experience what is on offer," he said.
One of the greatest challenges facing farmers across Africa is maximising the potential of their arable land by increasing crop yields.
Average crop yields across Zambia are 1.5-2 metric tonnes per hectare where there is potential to achieve in excess of eight metric tonnes per hectare. Set on a 24 hectare site at the GART Research Centre in Chisamba, Agritech Expo has seven live crop trials taking place at the event.
The fields were planted last November and will be ready in April 2014. The crop trials will give visitors a first-hand opportunity to see the effects of agro chemicals on crop growth and development.
The outdoor expo will also feature dozens of agrochemicals, financial services,irrigation and livestock stands.
The expo is free for all agricultural professionals who pre-register, or arrive with an event ticket.
Agritech Expo boasts strong local industry and institutional support including the ZNFU, Musika, a Zambian non-profit that stimulates private investment in the smallholder market, GART or the Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust and USAID, which will offer a comprehensive, free technical workshop programme.
Global agri giant AGCO has already confirmed its exclusive diamond sponsorship for Agritech Expo while Stanbic Bank is a platinum sponsor. Other sponsors include Afgri, BASF, Seed-Co, SARO, Du Pont-Pioneer, John Deere, Valtra, K2,Kempston, Lindsay, Zamseed and EFE.
A one-day conference, the Agribusiness Congress, forms part of Agritech Expo and will address key issues facing Zambian agriculture this year, including crop diversification, export and import regulations, innovative finance and supplier relationships.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, AGRITECH EXPO
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Agritech Expo to showcase Zambia's agriculture
By Bivan Saluseki
Sun 26 Jan. 2014, 14:00 CAT
ZAMBIA'S booming agriculture sector will be in focus at the country's first and only business-to-business outdoor agriculture exhibition, Agritech Expo, taking place in Chisamba in April.
The Zambia National Farmers Union is a key partner in the April 4-5 event which is expected to draw over 8,000 of the industry's leading farmers, suppliers, manufacturers, retails, agents and service providers.
"Agritech Expo puts Zambia on the map. It is our first business-to-business international farming exhibition and positions Zambia at the same level as our regional partners," ZNFU executive director Ndambo Ndambo said.
"Zambia is a nation on the rise, with an economy projected to be one of the 10 fastest growing in the world between now and 2015," said Agritech Expo event director Liam Beckett.
"At the heart of this growth is Zambia's flourishing agriculture sector, accounting for 35 per cent of the nation's GDP which equates to around $4.5billon in real money. The expansion of small-scale farming and the development of emerging and commercial farms are the key contributors to growth of the agriculture sector in Zambia."
Beckett said the timing of Agritech Expo was therefore perfect.
"It is a full-scale, live agriculture event offering everything from first-hand demonstrations of the latest in large scale agricultural machinery to live crop trials. We want visitors to really be able to get their hands dirty and be able to experience what is on offer," he said.
One of the greatest challenges facing farmers across Africa is maximising the potential of their arable land by increasing crop yields.
Average crop yields across Zambia are 1.5-2 metric tonnes per hectare where there is potential to achieve in excess of eight metric tonnes per hectare. Set on a 24 hectare site at the GART Research Centre in Chisamba, Agritech Expo has seven live crop trials taking place at the event.
The fields were planted last November and will be ready in April 2014. The crop trials will give visitors a first-hand opportunity to see the effects of agro chemicals on crop growth and development.
The outdoor expo will also feature dozens of agrochemicals, financial services,irrigation and livestock stands.
The expo is free for all agricultural professionals who pre-register, or arrive with an event ticket.
Agritech Expo boasts strong local industry and institutional support including the ZNFU, Musika, a Zambian non-profit that stimulates private investment in the smallholder market, GART or the Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust and USAID, which will offer a comprehensive, free technical workshop programme.
Global agri giant AGCO has already confirmed its exclusive diamond sponsorship for Agritech Expo while Stanbic Bank is a platinum sponsor. Other sponsors include Afgri, BASF, Seed-Co, SARO, Du Pont-Pioneer, John Deere, Valtra, K2,Kempston, Lindsay, Zamseed and EFE.
A one-day conference, the Agribusiness Congress, forms part of Agritech Expo and will address key issues facing Zambian agriculture this year, including crop diversification, export and import regulations, innovative finance and supplier relationships.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, AGRITECH EXPO
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(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) Farmers predict high yields
Sunday, 12 January 2014 00:00
Mercy Bofu
The Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union (ZFU) has expressed confidence that the country will reach its maize production target of 2,2 million tonnes following the favourable rainfall the country has received in recent weeks.
In an interview last week, ZFU vice-president Mr Berean Mukwende said farmers were also geared towards high output on the back of the input support they received from Government.
He, however, encouraged maize producers who are still planting to wind up and shift focus to other food crops.
“We are encouraged by the downpour and we hope that this continues throughout the season so that we achieve our targeted hectarage, especially on maize where we are targeting 2 million tonnes.
“I am sure this is achievable considering the support that farmers got from the Government. Up to now I can confirm that farmers are still receiving fertilisers under the Government scheme.
“We are also encouraging farmers to wind up the planting of food crops like maize since it is now late. Rather, they can concentrate on crops like sugar beans and cow peas.”
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Mr Wonder Chabikwa concurred, saying the rainfall pattern was encouraging.
“Though some low-lying areas were affected by flooding since they were receiving high rainfall daily, we foresee a great future in terms of yields,” he said.
“We are also expecting increased yields for cotton and tobacco. Many farmers are now in the fifth reaping season.”
Over the past few years, the country has harvested low yields owing to erratic rainfall, forcing authorities to turn to grain imports.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, ZFU (ZIMBABWE)
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(LUSAKATIMES) Col. Panji Kaunda happy with Mambwe mushroom project
Time Posted: January 11, 2014 5:57 am
Government is happy with the mushroom project which was launched in Mambwe district of Eastern province last year.
Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Deputy Minister Panji Kaunda, who is in Mambwe, said he was pleased with the commitment the women in the area have shown in ensuring that the mushroom project succeeds.
Colonel Kaunda explained in a telephone interview to ZANIS that Mambwe district will be used as a training centre for people who want to train in mushroom growing.
He said the project has the potential to reduce poverty in rural communities if it taken serious.
He said empowerment projects have a lasting impact on communities as compared to the social cash transfer.
Col. Kaunda stressed that empowerment projects should be encouraged because they help communities to acquire life skills that in turn better people’s livelihood.
He noted that the benefits of social cash transfer pogrammes were short term while those of empowerment projects were long lasting.
He disclosed that Eastern province has a readily available market for mushroom hence the more reason why women should form clubs and undertake mushroom growing ventures.
The Deputy Minister said government was ready to support programmes that aim at reducing poverty in rural communities.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, PANJI KAUNDA
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(STICKY) (VOICES OF AFRICA) Organic farm in Benin looks to set example for Africa
Posted on: June 24, 2014
Posted in: Business, Lifestyle
Comments: 1 Comment
With his pilgrim’s staff and panama hat, Father Godfrey Nzamujo nips up and down the paths of Songhai, the organic farm he created nearly 30 years ago to fight poverty and rural migration in Africa.
The small farm covered barely a hectare when it was set up in Porto Novo in 1985 but has since become a pilot project for the rest of the continent badly in need of new ideas to maximise yields.
The centre in Benin’s capital now stretches over 24 hectares and employs an army of workers and apprentices, who toil from sunrise to sunset growing fruit, vegetables and rice, as well as rearing fish, pigs, poultry.
“Nothing is wasted, everything is transformed” according to Nzamujo’s principle, with even chicken droppings turned into the bio-gas that powers the centre’s kitchens.
Father Godfrey Nzamujo, director of the organic farm Centre Songhai. (Pic: AFP)
Songhai in tiny Benin has big plans for Africa. It already has similar operations in Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone and wants to set up shop in 13 more west and central African countries.
Nzamujo’s raison d’etre is how to help Africans increase yields through simple techniques, without using pesticides or fertilizers, and while cutting production costs and protecting the environment.
The Nigeria-born priest, who was raised in California on the US west coast, said he was shocked by the appalling images of famine in Africa on television at the start of the 1980s.
He then left to discover the continent to see how he could put to good use his university training in agronomics, economics and information technology and fight against poverty on his own terms.
How it began
After visiting a number of countries, he ended up in Benin where the country’s then-Marxist government gave him a small plot.
“It was abandoned land, killed by chemical fertiliser and conventional agricultural practices. It didn’t work,” he told AFP.
“There were seven of us. We dug wells and watered with our own hands. And during the main dry season, this grey surface became green,” he recalled with a smile.
Nzamujo’s secret is in imitating nature, encouraging “good bacteria” present in the soil to maximise production without having to rely on chemicals.
Yields at Songhai speak for themselves: the farm produces seven tonnes of rice per hectare three times a year, up from one tonne per hectare once a year at the beginning of the project.
“Songhai is facing up to the triple challenge of Africa today: poverty, environment and youth employment,” said Nzamujo proudly.
The cleric’s system centres on local production and distribution, creating economic activity to tackle poverty head on.
At Songhai, jam simmers in large pots while chickens are roasted and soya oil, rice and fruit juice are packaged for sale in the centre’s shop or served at its restaurant.
Discarded parts of agricultural machinery are reused to create ingenious contraptions and used water is filtered using water hyacinths.
A man wheels coconuts in a wheelbarrow at the Centre Songhai. (Pic: AFP)
The centre also has an internet point and even a bank so that local people can avoid going into the city centre.
Youth employment is encouraged and some 400 farm apprentices – selected by competition – are trained every year. The 18-month course is entirely free.
Apprentices, interns
Paul Okou is one of them. The 25-year-old from Parakou, northern Benin, would like to follow his parents into farming but is hoping to work in a more profitable way.
“My parents use traditional, archaic methods while at Songhai we learn the modern way, albeit makeshift,” he said.
“What we used to do in two days now we do in two hours.”
The apprentices are sent into villages where they apply what they have learned. Once in charge of a farm, they join the Songhai network and are checked regularly.
Songhai also welcomes interns who are paying for their own training.
They include Abua Eucharia Nchinor, a Nigerian in his 30s, and Kemajou Nathanael, a 39-year-old former salesman from Cameroon, who both want to open an organic farm in their respective countries.
According to Nzamujo, Songhai is not a cure-all for Africa’s problems but tackles their root causes.
“Imagine if all the young people who hang around big cities did their training here and we equip them. … Imagine the productivity of Africa today.” he said.
Cecile de Comarmond for AFP
One Response to “Organic farm in Benin looks to set example for Africa”
1.
Nkgephu Martins Langa #
I am a pro-organic farmer from South Africa, i will like to communicate withFather Godfrey Nzamujo , please provide me with his website or email address.
Best regards,
Martin
June 25, 2014 at 2:32 pm Reply
Labels: AGRICULTURE, DEVELOPMENT, ORGANICS
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Latest: Farmers sell inputs
December 17, 2013
Agriculture Reporter
Some cotton farmers are selling inputs they received from contractors in order to buy food, the Cotton Council has established. The council received reports from Chiredzi, Muzarabani and Gokwe. Council spokesman Mr Garikayi Msika said the council has received several reports that some cotton growers in drought stricken areas were selling fertilisers to get cash to buy food.
“We are aware of the current food shortages but selling inputs is not the solution. Some farmers have a tendency of diverting inputs either to other crops or for sale and this has been affecting crop production for a long time,” Mr Msika said. He said farmers received cotton inputs last month and since then planting has been taking place.
“Planting is underway in most cotton growing areas. We cannot determine the total hectarage planted so far as we are still assessing. It is difficult to tell the hectarage planted using the amount of seed distributed as this will distort the actual situation on the ground,” he said.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Mr Wonder Chabikwa said farmers in Chiredzi and Chisumbanje usually do not use fertilisers and were not necessarily selling them to buy food.
“These farmers usually produce the crop without using fertiliser. This season we demanded that contractors distribute adequate fertilisers to farmers to ensure high yields and viability of the crop,” he said.
Mr Chabikwa urged the culprits to desist from such practices.
“Farmers should apply the fertilisers to get the intended yield of 1 200kg per hectare. Currently farmers are getting between 500 and 700kg per hectare and this is not viable,” he said. He said farmers’ leaders have held several meetings with cotton growers on the matter. If this practice continues it would further affect cotton production which has dropped by 48 percent due to low prices.
Most traditional cotton growers have switched to tobacco and groundnuts due to low pricing.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, FISP, GARIKAYI MSIKA, WONDER CHABIKWA
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(GLOBALRESEARCH) Sierra Leone: Police Opens Fire on Activists Protesting Against French Agri-Business Giant
By Richard Smallteacher
Global Research, December 12, 2013
CorpWatch 10 December 2013
Sierra Leone police opened fire on a group of protestors who were demonstrating against a palm oil plantation in the southern province of Pujehun. The project is being developed by Societe Financiere des Caoutchoucs (Socfin), a French agri-business giant.
“They opened fire on us just for fighting for our rights to the land,” said Sima Mattia told Reuters.
Sierra Leone, a small West African nation that ranks as one of the poorest countries in the world, is slowly emerging from a brutal civil war that displaced about half of its population between 1991-2002. Food security is a major national problem, and the current government headed by President Ernest Bai Koroma has favored the introduction of industrial farming as a way to meet this challenge” by leasing large swathes of land to foreign investors.
Activists say that the agricultural development plan has failed. “The consensus was that people were worse off than before,” Joan Baxter, senior fellow with the Oakland Institute, a US-based think tank, recently told the Guardian. “Companies are making grandiose promises about jobs and development but they will not employ all of the people who were employed in subsistence farming.”
This is not the first time that the police have cracked down on protestors against Socfin. Some 39 people were arrested during the planning stages of the $100 million project in 2011 when the company was first awarded 6,500 hectares of prime farmland for plantation development.
Last month another 45 individuals were arrested and persecuted for organizing protests against the company, according to a group called the Malen Affected Land Owners Association (MALOA).
“I have become a stranger in my land of birth because the bush which had been my source of wealth and authority is no more,” Bockarie Swarray, one of the landholders who was arrested after he lost his land and joined the protests, told Awoko newspaper.
Gerben Haringsma, Socfin’s country co-ordinator, defends the company. “What we do is not ideal, everything we do could be done better, but today we pay salaries to almost 3,000 people, who have no land and had no job until we came,” he told the Guardian. “I’m so sick and tired of defending myself as if I’m doing something wrong.”
Locals say that all they want is reasonable compensation. “We really are not against investment. We really are not. We desire that there is progress in our community. The company has come. We are not against that initiative,” Mammy Thomas, a community member, told the Oakland Institute. “However there are many problems that are affecting us, coming from the company. Anyone who owns land, lives off the land, knows we are not ready for it and it has left us in great constraint. To the extent that the money is given to us, it is not enough to take care of even one person.”
Other foreign agricultural companies in Sierra Leone have also come under fire for land grabbing. For example, Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF) and Brot Für Alle (Bread for All), an NGO based in Switzerland, recently reported that Addax Bioenergy, a Swiss energy company, was jeopardizing the livelihoods of thousands of subsistence farmers in order to export ethanol made from sugarcane grown in Sierra Leone.
Addax planted cane on large areas of productive land known as the bolilands even though it promised not to, alleges SiLNoRF’s in its 2012 annual monitoring report. “[Addax] has taken away most of the bolilands and the people, they are saying that they have been stolen from them,” Abass Kamara, programmes coordinator for SiLNoRF, told CorpWatch.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, NEOLIBERALISM, SIERRA LEONE
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(NEWZIMBABWE, FAIRFAX NZ NEWS) Zimbabwean heads Dairy New Zealand
12/11/2013 00:00:00
by Fairfax NZ News
ZIMBABWEAN James Muwunganirwa has been on the job for just over a month as DairyNZ 's regional leader for the lower North Island and is enjoying it.
It is a far cry from working as an extension leader in his homeland in the early 2000s where farm invasions left him and other Ministry of Agriculture extension officers in vulnerable positions.
"The extension managers felt very powerless at the time because we were tasked with taking advice to the government in terms of coming up with a national plan of re-settlement, which was not being adhered to,” he said.
It was then that Muwunganirwa looked at coming to New Zealand.
He had joined the Ministry of Agriculture in Zimbabwe after leaving university, and worked in the extension services department in various capacities but left his home country in 2005 when the economy started going pear-shaped and the land invasions peaked.
"I had started a small family with my wife, Gladys, and I sort of cast my eyes on the horizon. I was looking at the future - what it had in terms of my young kids and my wife - and it was looking bleak.
"It so happened that a mate I had worked with had come out in 2002 and he had worked on a couple of dairy farms in the South Island before he left to join the Ashburton District Council."
Muwunganirwa's friend encouraged him to look for job opportunities and he received a job offer while still at home.
"So that's when I took the leap of faith. So I packed my bags and hopped on to the plane, leaving my wife and two kids behind,” he recalled.
"My plan coming here was that I wanted to initially get a very good handle on New Zealand pasture-based farm systems and on the back of that to go into what I always wanted to do, which is extension work.
"I am working with farmers to improve profitability and sustainability of their dairy farm businesses."
He started off milking cows in the South Island for a 50-50 sharemilker south of Timaru. At that job he milked 650 cows in a grass-only system as an assistant herd manager.
After doing that job for 18 months, he decided it was time for more responsibility so he moved to North Canterbury to a similar-sized herd but also looked after one-half of the farm and half of the herd.
"At that point my wife joined me, because I had left them for a while."
Muwunganirwa had the role for 3 years before he felt he was "ripe enough in terms of getting back into extension work".
He got a job with DairyNZ as a consulting officer based in Whangarei, before coming to his present role in the lower North Island. His region includes 1,100 dairy farms in the Horizons, Greater Wellington and Hawke's Bay regions.
"My job entails driving on-farm change and ensuring it results in the securing of profitability, the sustainability and the competitiveness of dairy farms in the lower North Island," he said.
He has a team of three consulting officers working on improving herd reproductive performance and helping farms to comply with new regulations around the nutrient management programmes of Horizon's One Plan.
"Our role is to make sure we assist farmers in terms of coming up with nutrient management plans that will see them getting the consents they require for those farms that are in the priority catchments."
He also runs a couple of dairy discussion groups, one in Shannon and one in Otaki.
The main topics of discussion in the groups are managing surplus, maintaining pasture quality and capturing the cash.
"This spring has been uncharacteristically good to the extent that most people have found themselves with huge surpluses that they have had to deal with and that obviously presents challenges in managing pasture quality.
"We are trying to ensure that farmers are as profitable as they can be in a high pay-out year."
He said trends showed that in such years expenses tended to rise as everyone wanted to produce more milk so they could chase the dollar.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, DAIRY, JAMES MUWUNGANIRWA, NEW ZEALAND
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Farmers are failing to graduate from dependency on govt, says Fr Mwanza
By Mwala Kalaluka and Christopher Miti in Petauke
Sun 03 Nov. 2013, 14:00 CAT
COMMENT - Fr. George Mwanza should familiarize himself with American agriculture, which is very heavily subsidized. No one is wondering when the transnational corporations that now own American agriculture will ever 'graduate from government support', and unlike Zambian farmers, they don't need it. Supporting agriculture is one of the tasks of government. - MrK
A PETAUKE clergyman says farmers are failing to graduate from government dependence following the removal of maize subsidies because the farming cooperatives aimed at sustaining their agricultural power solely concentrated on acquiring bags of fertiliser.
And Fr George Mwanza, the parish priest at Petauke's St Thomas Anglican Church, says the government has concentrated its road rehabilitation programmes in Msanzala constituency of the district where the area member of parliament is a member of the ruling party.
Fr Mwanza said in an interview in Petauke on Friday that the area's economic activities were driven by the agriculture sector, but the marketing system in the district was not okay and as such, the economy of the district was struggling.
"Things are not okay in terms of the market system. FRA this year, I don't think there was much. People were still complaining," Fr Mwanza said. "Last time they were told the government was going to buy the crops but to their disappointment, it was not what they expected and at the end of the day, they sold their maize earlier than the FRA market season."
He said the other problem was that none of the depots in the district had been supplied with fertiliser.
"It's not promising that the farmers are going to have their inputs earlier, which is another threat and I don't know what will happen because the issue of the removing of subsidy; they were just taken unaware," Fr Mwanza said. "If they had done it slowly, that was going to create space for the farmers to start preparing themselves."
The clergyman said farmers depend on the crops they sell to realise monies which they use for their day-to-day business.
"Most of the farmers they expected subsidies maybe to be removed slowly, gradually. Now they don't know where to begin from because our cooperatives here, they were only cooperatives which were meant to acquire fertiliser only and not to sustain them for a longer period that they can be weaned," he said. "So it was just a group which would acquire fertiliser that is all…I thought maybe, this was not properly done when they were forming cooperatives. It was supposed to be a cooperative where five years, people have to graduate and stand on their own financially, but this is not the case."
He further said the concept of cooperatives was not well understood because as far as farmers were concerned, they only needed to come up with a team that would put its money together without looking at how they would sustain that cooperative.
"But the removal of subsidies meant that these people were not prepared and I don't know what will happen this season," he said.
"To my understanding, shares were supposed to be accumulating interest but for them, it is just a matter of getting a bag of fertiliser, that is all."
And Fr Mwanza said although very few people would complain about roads in Petauke, there was always a political interference whenever it came to rehabilitating or upgrading them.
"During the time when there are by-elections, you see the tippers and people being employed, but after the by-elections, you find that all the vehicles that are supposed to be on the site, they are all removed, which I also look at to be politically moved," he said.
"I have seen roads like in Msanzala area where most of the roads are being done but here in Petauke Central, there are very few roads that are being done.
If there is any road that is being done, it should be the Kalindawalo road. In Msanzala, there is a PF member of parliament, but we don't have anyone to represent us here in Petauke Central. So, most of the things are slowing down."
However, Fr Mwanza said the people of Petauke Central had seen development on the part of the market which he said was well done.
On education, he said that the state of most community schools was deplorable but was quickly to mention that the standards in other schools that were in the vicinity of the Boma were fine.
"Just some 10 kilometres from here, you find that some children are still sitting on the floor. Not even a floor where there is cement, but on the dust and using their laps as desks," he said.
Fr Mwanza called on health workers to change their work culture and serve people in the district without looking at their political affiliation or otherwise.
"The working culture is very bad, especially this time when people want to go on a go-slow, you find that people are not caring," said Fr Mwanza. "The 'Church', we have different programmes which are community-based looking at how we can educate the people as well as alleviate poverty."
Labels: AGRICULTURE, FISP, PETAUKE, SUBSIDIES
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Take risks to spur agriculture, advises Kwesiga
By Gift Chanda
Tue 22 Oct. 2013, 14:00 CAT
DEVELOPING countries like Zambia should be more willing to take risks that have the potential to spur agriculture productivity, says the African Development Bank.
In an interview, African Development Bank (AfDB) resident representative to Zambia Dr Freddie Kwesiga said Zambia had an opportunity to become a food breadbasket of the region and end poverty among the rising population but that it needed to take risky measures that would revolutionise the agricultural sector.
"Agriculture needs about five things: it needs improving productivity," he said. "The low levels of productivity here do not match our population demand."
Dr Kwesiga also said agriculture needed to be commercialised and stop being treated as a way of life. "You also need to have markets, invest in value addition and most importantly, you need to embrace technology through heavy investments in research and development," Dr Kwesiga added.
He said governments in Africa needed to place agriculture on top of their agenda if poverty, high youth unemployment and underdevelopment were to be addressed.
Dr Kwesiga said there was need to urgently improve infrastructure, expand power generation as well as promote regional integration and technology to enhance agriculture productivity.
He said these were part of the bank's core strategy beyond 2013.
"For 2013 and beyond, we have put science and technology as key. Look, the continent will have another 1 billion people in the next 25 years, what are they going to eat? Are we going to produce at this rate and feed another 25 million Zambians in the next 25 years? No! We must increase productivity," Dr Kwesiga said.
"Maize at its current standing is produced at about 1 tonne per hectare in Zambia but with a family of seven or eight, eating 700 kilogrammes per year, it means that a farmer who is producing 1 tonne is in a deficit of 1.4 tonnes to feed his family."
He said the bank was keen to see that countries like Zambia improve their agriculture productivity."Agriculture is and will remain the cornerstone of the bank's intervention. In countries like Zambia, we are working on irrigation, technology and energy generation as well as supporting agriculture research, and we will continue doing so," said Dr Kwesiga.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, FREDDIE KWESIGA
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DDF targets 32 000ha for tillage
October 10, 2013
Elita Chikwati Agriculture Reporter
GOVERNMENT has released US$500 000 to the District Development Fund that will be used to repair broken down tillage machinery to increase the operational fleet for the 2013/2014 cropping season.DDF is now in the process of repairing the broken down implements and tractors that are meant to provide tillage for vulnerable households around the country. The DDF is operating 20 percent of the total fleet.
DDF deputy director-Land Development and Tillage, Mr Tambirai Chiwera said the company was targeting to till 32 000 hectares of land during this cropping season.
Mr Chiwera said due to the limited tillage capacity and the overwhelming demand for the services in the small holder farming sector, DDF was this season targeting the vulnerable in society who have no draught power.
“These include the aged, orphans, heroes’ widows or widowers and other vulnerable groups as defined by the Department of Social Welfare. We have commenced this programme with the Zunde Ramambo plots whose proceeds are traditionally used to assist vulnerable families.”
He said five tractors were distributed per province. These tractor units move in a cluster, tilling the Zunde Ramambo plots first before attending to fields of the orphans, heroes’ widows and the aged.
“We have 532 tractors but only 109 are operational. These are obviously not adequate for all the provinces as they only constitute 20 percent of the total fleet,” said Mr Chiwera.
“If those tractors with minor faults are repaired the target figure may be increased to 93 000ha. The target hectarage is lower than last year due to the limited funding for repair and maintenance.”
Out of the 532 tractors the company has, 109 are operational, 200 have minor faults while 223 have major faults. DDF has 411 ploughs, 81 working, 150 broken down with minor faults and 180 with major faults. Out of the 153 disc harrows, 35 are operational, 46 and 71 have minor and major faults respectively.
The company has 108 planters, 22 are working, 31 have minor faults while 55 have major ones. Eighteen of the 21 seed drills are working and three of them not functional due to major breakdowns.
Mr Chiwera said the US$500 000 disbursed by the Treasury was not adequate to cater for the repairs of the machinery and implements adding that more money was required to replace the broken down machinery.
The vulnerable households will have their land tilled for free as the charges will be paid for them by Government. DDF charges 32 litres of fuel per hectare for the dry rate and US$45 to till a hectare of land or US$88 for wet rate.
The dry rate is when the farmer provides fuel and pays for the tillage per hectare while the wet rate is when DDF provides both fuel and the tillage service.
The District Development Fund, is charged with the responsibility of providing and maintaining rural infrastructure within the communal, resettlement and small scale commercial farming areas of Zimbabwe.
Its programmes are funded by Government and the private sector.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT FUND (ZW), LAND REFORM
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Farmers should not plant yet, warns meteorologist
By Tilyenji Mwanza
Tue 08 Oct. 2013, 14:00 CAT
A METEOROLOGIST says the rains that were experienced yesterday in some parts of the country were as a result of tropical winds from the east that had caused a disturbance in the lower clouds.
According to a meteorologist talked to, who did not want to be named, the rains were not an indication of the beginning of the rainy season and cautioned farmers against planting.
"No, the rainy season has not begun. These rains are just a small disturbance because of the easterly winds. For farmers, please do not start farming; the rains experienced are less than a millimeter and farmers are encouraged to plant when we have experienced more than or at least 20mm," he said.
The meteorologist further explained that the Meteorological Department had problems in predicting weather because it used global models to make its comparisons.
"Our biggest challenge here is we don't have local models; we rely on global models to give our forecast but we are trying," he said.
He observed that the rainfall this year would be more favourable than last year's.
"We are expecting a better and more favourable rainy season as compared to last year. Unless otherwise, we do not expect any droughts or rainfall complaints from farmers," he said.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, WEATHER
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(HERALD ZW) US$100m loan facility for agric
September 26, 2013
Golden Sibanda Senior Business Reporter—
CBZ Bank Limited has secured a US$100 million medium term line of credit from the African Export and Import Bank to support agriculture and related infrastructure projects in the sector for the 2013/4 farming season.The funding, which augments resources Government is mobilising to support farmers, is a vote of confidence in the new Zanu-PF Government and comes as a relief to farmers who were neglected by the inclusive Government.
In its winning election manifesto, Zanu-PF identifies agriculture as a key driver of the economic turnaround programme and pledges to mobilise up to US$8 billion to finance the sector over the next five years.
Speaking on arrival from the Afreximbank headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday, CBZ Holdings group chief executive Dr John Mangudya said the funds will also improve the economy, which has been facing liquidity challenges over the past seven months.
“We have secured a US$100 million medium-term loan from Afreximbank for agriculture.
“The funds will be extended to farmers over one year. This will also improve liquidity in the economy,” he said.
Zimbabwe continues to battle liquidity constraints owing to the impact of the West’s illegal economic sanctions which restricted foreign currency inflows and access to external lines of credit.
Dr Mangudya could not be drawn into revealing the cost of the funds to farmers, but said loans to farmers would be at affordable interest rates.
“The funding from Afreximbank comes on the back of 2012 Agricultural Marketing Authority Bills whose tenure lapsed in August and the amount tendered was repaid in full.”
In a further show of commitment in supporting agriculture, CBZ Bank last week floated another US$35 million AMA Bills to support the production of soya beans.
In the recent past, the bank has been most active in mobilising lines of credit from regional banks and has to date drawn down a cumulative US$645 million from Afreximbank since 1998.
The bank’s efforts complement the Government efforts to mobilise resources for the 2013/4 farming season in support of resettled commercial, small-scale and A1 farmers.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa last week said while it was not yet clear how much Government will have to mobilise for this season, it would certainly ensure farmers are assisted.
Minister Chinamasa said the basic package will include at least a bag of compound D and AN fertilisers and 10 kilogrammes of seed.
While there is enough of large grain seed, the minister said stocks of small grain seed and fertilisers might be insufficient.
The minister said while Government might not be able to mobilise all the resources required due to the short time left before the farming season starts, efforts will be made to assist farmers.
“In terms of what we want, it might not be sufficient; efforts will be made to make sure we assist small-scale farmers.
“The commitment to agriculture is there. They should not expect miracles overnight, but the commitment is there, agriculture is the mainstay of the economy.”
Minister Chinamsa said Government felt obliged to assist farmers because the cost of funding agriculture for food security was much less than that of importing to cover shortages.
In its election manifesto, Zanu-PF pledged to unlock indigenisation assets to capacitate Agribank with a US$2 billion endowment to enable it to mobilise resources amounting to US$8 billion for the agriculture sector over the next five years.
Adequate financing of agriculture, the party says, will benefit millions of people through higher incomes, food security and generation of employment in addition to stimulating economic growth through the sector’s strong backward and forward linkages with other critical sectors of the economy, among them the manufacturing and financial sectors.
Labels: AFREXIMBANK, AGRICULTURE, PATRICK CHINAMASA
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Econet insures farmers against crop failure
25/09/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
ECONET Wireless says it has developed a weather-indexed drought insurance service for small-holder farmers. The service allows farmers to make a financial claim if their crops fail because of either inadequate or excessive rainfall.
Under the Econet scheme, which is part of a programme for farmers known as EcoFarmer, a farmer can buy insurance for as little as eight cents per day, which is deducted from their prepaid phone account during the agricultural season.
"If the rain does not fall, resulting in a drought, the farmer will be given as much as $100 for every 10kg seed pack planted," the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The key to the system is a highly innovative weather monitoring network which enables Econet to know exactly how much rain fell on the farmer's field.
Econet has also partnered with Seed Co to produce special seed packs that contain a small plastic container with a special number that the farmer must SMS to the network. As soon as Econet receives the number, they know exactly where the farmer is located.
The Econet base station in the farmer's area monitors weather patterns including rainfall, temperature and humidity. This information is used by weather experts to tell if there has been a drought in the area.
Econet said the "weather-indexed insurance cover" was deviced as a response to calls by agricultural experts for small-holder farmers to be given access to insurance cover for their crops.
"When a farmer can plant crops knowing that crop failure does not mean hunger for the family, they will be encouraged to plant more crops and therefore increase national production," the company said.
Econet has chosen Mashonaland East province as the location for a pilot scheme, which will last between November this year and March 2014. The system for weather measurement and monitoring has already been installed and the plastic capsules are being put into seed packs.
Based on the results of the pilot scheme, Econet will then expand it nationally, in time for next year's planting season.
The service being developed by Econet for Zimbabwe is similar to one which has been rolled out in Kenya by that country's leading operator, Safaricom.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, ECONET
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Stanbic, John Deere partner to boost farmers yields
By Gift Chanda
Tue 24 Sep. 2013, 14:00 CAT
ACCESS to farming equipment can boost Zambia's use of arable land, according to Stanbic Bank Zambia. Official data shows that Zambia's agriculture sector uses only 15 per cent of the 58 per cent arable land across its estimated 752,000 square kilometres of land.
Stanbic Bank Zambia's head of personal and business banking Mukwandi Chibesakunda noted that the country's agriculture potential was yet to be realised because farmers were still hindered by lack of farming equipment to increase their yield.
Farmers in Zambia further have limited access to finance to improve their yield and exploit the country's vast expanses of land.
Chibesakunda said efforts to diversify Zambia's economy would only be realised once farmers are empowered to access farming equipment that would help them increase their output and ultimately grow the agriculture sector's contribution to the national economy from 21 per cent.
She was speaking in Lusaka when Stanbic Bank signed a collaboration agreement with John Deere aimed at providing farmers with farming equipment to help boost their yields countrywide.
The partnership would see the bank's customers access farming equipment from John Deere, enjoying improved pricing and reduced interest rates.
"Zambia can better feed itself and the growing global population if productivity can be boosted. It is for this reason that I am pleased to announce the signing of a Local Collaboration Agreement between Stanbic Bank and John Deere Financial. The Local Collaboration Agreement outlines our partnership which is aimed at empowering farmers across the country to have access to world class John Deere farming equipment at affordable rates through financing from John Deere Financial and Stanbic Bank," Chibesakunda said.
She explained that the provision of farming equipment through this agreement would see increased productivity in a sector that provides 70 per cent of the population's employment.
Through its Vehicle Asset Finance and Agriculture Banking, Stanbic Bank has been at the forefront of assisting farmers across Zambia to mechanize their agriculture operations and play a pivotal role in economic growth.
And John Goncalves, John Deere area sales manager for southern Africa, welcomed the agreement as it would empower farmers to increase their yield.
"The agreement between John Deere Financial and Stanbic Bank is a further development of our product offering and evidence of our commitment to our customers in Zambia. Through the John Deere collaboration with Stanbic, the premium John Deere products and services will now be even more accessible with the financing options available from John Deere Financial to suit our customer needs," added Goncalves.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, JOHN DEERE, JOHN GONCALVES, MECHANIZATION
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