THOMAS MADHUKU

Chipo Mlambo, a local farmer at the Maunganidze irrigation scheme in Chipinge has been involved in horticulture farming for the past 15 years, raising her five children in the absence of her husband who passed on in 1998.

In 2013, she harvested over a tonne of beans but found herself stuck with the 30 bags in her makeshift barn without buyers. Last year, she planted the same amount of beans hoping her fortunes would be better but once again she could not secure a market.

In the past, companies like Cairns foods would come and buy beans and tomatoes at their doorstep. But today, a new breed of buyers in the mould of middlemen offers very low prices since they will also be intending to sell to big companies.

“We do not want to sell to these middlemen; you cannot sell your beans for 0.80 cents per kilogram, its daylight robbery because the amount of time and labour we put to produce beans is not commensurate with what these middlemen offer us.

“We sell to them because of desperation because we need money to cater for household necessities but we strongly feel, there can be better deals,” said Mlambo.

“We wish for a day when we can actually get real value for our sweat because we are losing every motivation to grow cash crops,” she said.

Mlambo’s story is representative of the situation befalling most indigenous small holder farmers in Zimbabwe who are struggling to secure reliable and fair markets for their produce.

In an interview with this reporter, farmers in areas such as Chipinge, Domboshava, Murewa and Mutoko all confirmed that farming without buyers was their biggest nightmare.

“The situation is no longer the same, it has become an annual problem to get buyers for our produce,” said Catherine Vhutuza from Chibuwe irrigation scheme.

She added that most farmers in their irrigation scheme struggle every season to sell their beans and tomatoes due to the scarcity of buyers.

“Long back, buyers would flock this area often competing to offer high prices but it’s no longer the case, our traditional buyers such as Cairns foods are complaining of viability problems,” added Vhutuza.

Councillor for ward 20 in Chibuwe, Charles Mugidho, said despite farmers having harvested beans, there are no buyers.

According to Mugidho, the past five seasons have seen small holder farmers struggling to secure markets for their bean crop with buyers often coming with price as low as between 0.80 cents to a dollar per kilogram against their expected minimum of $1.20 per kilogram.

“The price was not any good for buyers as it could not cater for their preparation for next season, pay electricity, water and buy inputs, not considering household requirements such as school fees, food among others,” Mugidho said.

Dennis Chijokwe, a farmer in Mutema Irrigation scheme in Chipinge concurred with Mugidho saying they were facing difficulties with securing markets for their produce

“There are no buyers, every farming season we always hope for the better but we end up stuck with our produce in our barns,” said Chijokwe.

In Murewa, farmers who are involved in tomato and sweet potato farming said they are now resorting to informal trading by the roadside.

“We now sell to travellers along the Harare-Nyamapanda highway but this is insignificant and cannot be a market to talk about,” said Energy Macheke, a Murewa farmer.

The traditional Mbare market where local producers used to rely on for brisk business is no longer the same with a number of farmers confirming that sales have drastically gone down due to a number of factors including the proliferation of foreign produces especially from South Africa.

Amanda Alfasi from Domboshava who was delivering cabbages at Mbare market said business had gone down as business operators are resorting to foreign imports.

“Currently I am only supplying Mbare market, all the other buyers who used to come to buy from us including shop operators have disappeared so it’s a major setback for us,” Alfasi said.

Cairns Foods Limited, one of Zimbabwe’s largest food manufacturing and packaging companies which used to support small holder farmers has of late been facing viability challenges before being placed under judicial management.

The company has in the past five to six years downsized its operations and has not been reaching out to farmers in remote parts of the country.

Opening the company’s new snacks, early last year, Cairns Foods Acting Chief Executive, Jeremiah Kwenda said his company was planning to reboot contract farming and providing a ready market for local farmers.

“Cairns are still the largest local market for potatoes in the country because of our chips division. We want to continue growing and provide a market for local farmers.

“As we continue to increase our capacity utilization, we want to re-introduce tomato sauce to the market, this means a market again for tomatoes in the country,” he added.

Kwenda also said that at its peak, the company’s input scheme was benefitting over 15 000 families in Manicaland, Masvingo and Mashonaland East.

Newton Jaravani, Chairperson of Fresh Produce Marketing Association of Zimbabwe (FPMAZ) said they provide market farmers with market but the recent influx of informal traders had seen most farmers shunning the conventional marketing in favour of quick money.

“Most farmers are now going to the informal market because they sell quickly and get money unlike big buyers who pay later

We organize seminars and open days where buyers and producers can interface and agree on prices and other related issues,” said Jaravani.

To help provide markets for the small holder farmers, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and partners have been involved in market linkages initiatives for local farmers. FAO Forest Forces Projects Co-ordinator Maxwell Phiri, however, said that while considerable ground work had been undertaken tangible results for the initiative would only be expected in September.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanization and Irrigation Development, Davis Marapira said through a department responsible for Economics and Marketing, government was also working to assist farmers with markets.

“This Department of Economics and Marketing works with Agricultural Extension Officers in rural areas to disseminate information on new or existing markets for their produce.

“There is also a parastatal called Agricultural Marketing Authority that assists farmers under the contract farming scheme with inputs, capital and equipment and a ready market after harvesting their produce,” he said.

Local small holder farmers look up to the government to address loopholes that have resulted in the proliferation of imported products in Zimbabwe and this, according to farmers is the only way that can save the agricultural sector from collapse.

Since the collapse of large scale commercial farming in 2000 following the government’s chaotic land reform program, small holder farmers have become the main contributors in the agriculture sector. Tobacco farming, now largely in the hands of small holder farmers continues to witness an upward trend with over 106 000 growers having registered in the 2014/15 season against 8 500 in 2000. Though the country has not matched the bar set by white commercial farmers before their violent eviction, small holder farmers have shown that given adequate support, they can take Zimbabwe back to its glory days.