The Sunday News
Mhlupheki Dube
THE Government has taken a very necessary and deliberate action to improve crop production and ensure national food security during this summer farming season.
The main focus has been to promote climate proofed agriculture and there is massive evidence on the ground that it is all systems out and Government extension arms are working full throttle to guarantee that we get it right this time. Probably for the first time, extension officers are working towards achieving set targets.
Each extension officer is expected to work with around 350 farmers who have adopted the climate proofed agricultural practice.
I am not sure if the target for extension officers is the same across the whole country or it is region specific considering differences in population densities of our rural communities.
Whatever the case is about targets, I am very happy that extension officers are working towards set targets because these are the operatives on the ground who are supposed to ensure that farmers produced and feed the nation. It is in fact unacceptable that for a long time they have been flying rudderless in terms of what individual officer has to guarantee in terms of production from his/her farmer in order for the nation not to go hungry. This target setting for production at extension officer level should become the norm not just a once off operation.
It should constitute the major percentage on the performance appraisal of the extension officer and Government should not at all be burdened with the salary bill of an extension officer who cannot get his/her farmers to produce.
Having said that about the crop production side of things, it is imperative that we remind ourselves of the same obligation towards the livestock side of agriculture. We again reiterate to the powers that be, not to relegate livestock production to the “any other” section of the production agenda but to keep it at the high table of things as well.
We have complained before that a number of initiatives and actions are formulated and taken in the name of improving crop production but on a measured scale, no similar energy is expended on the livestock side of things. That is not acceptable because livestock production as an agricultural action, is as equally important as crop production. It is no secret that in the drier southern regions of the country livestock production is in fact the source of livelihood and food security.
It is also not in dispute that livestock production has emerged over the years as the only viable area of investment and storage of wealth for most Zimbabweans due to the runner way inflation which seems to be affecting every other investment sector except for livestock production. We all know that at the moment and for some time now, your money is only safe when it is outside the bank and most importantly invested in livestock production because calves you get every year are way better than any kind of bank interest you would ever get, if ever you could get that interest at all.
As a livestock practitioner and farmer, I appreciate Government interventions in the livestock sector such as the Command Livestock Programme. However, I also motivate for such interventions to be made as wide spread as interventions in crop production.
The Government farming inputs for example almost reach every communal farmer but the command livestock reached only a few people at community level. Granted, livestock is more expensive than crop inputs but there is room to do more. What is the climate proofed action programme for the livestock farmer?
The sooner we treat crop production and livestock production the same, the better. Then we would know that those involved in the practice need to be treated equally.
Let’s have the same vigour exhibited for crop production in its all facets and the same with livestock production. I would be delighted to know that our livestock extension officers have also been given targets to work towards, as is the case with crop production under the climate proofed programme.
Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo. Feedback [email protected]/cell 0772851275
