Sanderson Abel
Agriculture is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s economy insofar as the bulk of Zimbabwe’s population remains largely rural based.
Zimbabwe’s agricultural potential has thus always hinged on a few factors one of which has been the demographic influence of a dominant rural population of people who derive their livelihood from agriculture and other related rural economic activities.
The success of the agricultural sector in the earlier years had hinged on the fact that the agricultural sector was a properly regulated industry. It was largely composed of various structures which were meant to promote the interests of the various stakeholders.
These structures included a variety of public institutions such as the Agriculture Marketing Authority, Dairy Marketing Board and Cotton Marketing Board, The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board and the Cold Storage Commission among others. These were set up to oversee and champion the marketing of the various agricultural commodities.
The private sector also played its part through the formation of the various farmer organisations. These included the umbrella farmers associations (e.g. Commercial Farmers’ Union) and specific sector boards such as the Horticulture Promotion Council, the Pig Industry Board and the Tobacco Research Board dealing with a specialty area.
The success of agricultural development was reliant on the creation of a large group of professional local farmers producing high volumes of marketable output of a consistent quality. This had a positive effect on reducing the transaction costs throughout the whole value chain.
The important aspect of these farmer organisations was that all those involved shared a common vision on development and contributed in effective, constructive, and committed ways. To prove this, these were mostly funded through member subscriptions showing greater commitment to respective organisations.
Strong and vibrant farmers’ organisations that genuinely represent their constituencies can play a vital part in informing and influencing agricultural policy and practice.
In other countries farmer organisations are playing a critical role to complement government efforts.
In the case of Malawi and, to a lesser extent Kenya and Ethiopia, they are increasingly serving as key partners to the private sector, particularly in the production of high-value horticultural and commodity crops
However, following the land reform programme, the country experienced the advent of other farming bodies besides the Commercial Farmers’ Union and the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union.
The coming aboard of various farmer organisations should have been a welcome move but unfortunately it wasn’t because the benefits that arose from these were minimal as the majority of them failed to take on board the smallholder communal farmers.
It is important that this group of farmers be taken aboard given their contribution to various crops with tobacco as an example.
Farmer organisations are important because the help farmers in a variety of ways and these include:
Identify agriculture as a business, from production to marketing.
Advocated for shifting the incentive structure to favour production.
Facilitated access to land and credit (Land markets).
Assist farmers to ensure there is no information asymmetry through ensuring timeous dissemination of information to the members
Engage with suppliers to ensure appropriate timing for inputs in the right quantity and quality.
Minimise uncertainty through market research to improve the output quality and also the availability of the markets.
Promote productivity and efficiency through sharing ideas and better methods of agriculture.
They help foster synergies through backward and forward linkages; value addition and technology transfer.
It has been shown that farmer organisations are able to bring out smallholder farmer revolution through facilitating farmer access to inputs, credit, output markets, technical training and to increase engagement with policy processes and improve coordination with the agricultural sector.
Farmers as rational human beings would want to weigh the cost and benefits of joining any farmer organisations. There are hence factors that influence participation in farmer organisations. The following are some of the issues that will influence the extent of participation:
The degree of the farmer’s dependence on the outputs of the organised activity.
The degree of certainty of the availability of the outputs.
The extent to which the outputs will be available only as a result of collective action.
The extent to which the rewards associated with the collective action will be distributed equitably.
The extent of availability of rewards within a reasonable time frame.
The extent to which the rewards are commensurate with the costs associated with continued participation.
There is need to borrow from success stories of farmer organisations from other countries. The following are some of the critical success elements of farmer organisations; clarity of mission, sound governance, strong, responsive and accountable leadership, social inclusion, demand-driven and focused service delivery, high technical and managerial capacity and effective engagement with external actors.
As we move into the year 2014, our farmers can make the agriculture sector a success by becoming part and parcel of at least farmer organisation. This will also make it easier for planning and the banking sector to be effective in service delivery.
Sanderson Abel is an economist. He writes in his capacity as Senior Economist for the Bankers’ Association of Zimbabwe. He can be contacted on abel@baz.org.zw or on 04-744686, 0772463008