The Sunday News
Mhlupheki Dube
IN a casual conversation with my colleague, Mr Mitsho Nkomo, a passionate livestock farmer and avid follower of this column, he raised a concern against calling settlements in the former commercial land which was allocated to farmers, villages.
His main argument was that villages should only refer to the communal lands as we have traditionally known them, because calling resettlement farmers villagers had negative implications and connotations. The argument then spilled into a social media group for a ward in Mangwe District, in which we both belong. Interesting points were raised which I feel are pertinent and worth sharing in this wider platform.
While there were varying reasons for resettlement farmers objecting to have their settlements called villages, there was a general convergence of thought in a view points. Firstly, calling farmers resettled in prime commercial livestock ranching land, villagers, has the unintended consequence of mentally configuring livestock farmers who are expected to operate and produce commercially, into subsistence mode.
Livestock farmers who are expected to hold their own and produce in commercial mode will begin to view themselves as social welfare cases who should be perennially on Government freebies. They will not be able to lead any development of their farming blocks as they will expect Government to come and do everything for them just like in communal lands.
You will expect Government to drill you boreholes, construct dams and grade your access roads, yet with a bit of effort and clarity of thought, some of the things could be done by farmers on their own.
Just like previous commercial farmers who constructed small dams, weirs and drilled boreholes on their own, the livestock ranchers who got settled on these farmers can do the same things albeit from a combined effort. There is no reason why a whole settlement with over 30 households should fail to drill their own borehole and prefer to share drinking water with livestock from the existing dams!
Also, from the regulatory point of view, relevant authorities will always view farmers who are otherwise supposed to be commercial producers, as charity cases that should always be remembered on the Government charity list. The broader effect of defining supposedly commercial farming areas as villages and by extension, the farmers as villagers, is that production and productivity decreases as farmers abdicate their production duties, preferring instead to be welfare cases.
We are actually unable to hold these farmers to account for their production levels because we have defined them in incapacitated terms. One may argue that there is nothing in a name, as actually the term village refers more to the settlement pattern and has very little to do with production.
While this may be true from a superficial level, we should never discount the power of mindset configuration. If a person is mentally wired to be self-sustaining, he/she operates from one whose mental settings are for surviving from handouts. This article must, however, not be misconstrued to say everyone in communal villages survives on Government donations as there are some hardworking families that earn their living from their sweat.
It is therefore the view of this article as generally shared by members who joined the conversation that I referred to earlier on, that settlements in these commercial prime livestock ranching land, should be defined in terms of farming blocks and be treated as farming blocks such that any support that is given is only in terms of enhancing livestock production and other farming activities and not on welfare basis.
These farmers should therefore be assessed for production so that only those with the desire to utilise the land for general good of the nation are settled on those farming blocks. These are commercial farming blocks and hence the land cannot just be reduced to a location of one’s grave but it should produce to feed the nation. Those farming block owe that to the nation and the sooner we view them not as mere villages but production farming units the better for everyone.
Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo. Feedback [email protected]/ cell 0772851275
