‘We want to become the agro-industrial hub of Africa’
When Zimbabwe embarked on the historic Fast-Track Land Reform Programme in 2000, the country’s detractors soon realised that this exercise was unstoppable and hence searched for ways to discredit it. It was not only ill-advised but chaotic, they screamed while others swore by their mothers that Zimbabwe would never recover from the subsequent slump in agricultural production. No wonder, the prophets of doom celebrated when Zimbabwe’s agricultural production took a dip.
Then came the Second Republic in 2017. President Mnangagwa appointed Cde Perrance Shiri as the Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement and in no time, the former Air Marshal had come up with a raft of measures to revive the agricultural sector. Unfortunately, Cde Shiri passed away on 29 July 2020 from a Covid-19-related illness. Following his untimely death, many Zimbabweans wondered whether President Mnangagwa could find a successor with the same drive and enthusiasm to get the agricultural sector back on track.
That man would be Dr Anxious Masuka, who was ushered into the hot seat in August 2022. Needless to say, the veteran agriculturalist has not disappointed. There is a revolution and transformation taking place in Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector that, according to Dr Masuka, will see Zimbabwe becoming Africa’s agro-industrial hub.
In this interview with our Editor-in-Chief Munyaradzi Huni (MH), the hardworking Dr Masuka talks about the transition from Command Agriculture to the National Enhanced Agricultural Productivity Scheme. He also explains why farmers no longer need to apply for 99-year leases, outlines his Ministry’s vision to turn farming into a viable commercial business and explains the Second Republic’s new policy guidelines targeting multiple farm owners, abandoned, underutilised and derelict farms for re-organisation and replanning so that more Zimbabweans can get access to land.
“We don’t want to go back to our yesteryear status as the breadbasket of Africa. We want to become the agro-industrial hub of Africa,” Dr Masuka declares. Read on . . .
MH: Your Ministry is called the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development. This is quite a mouthful. Why do you think President Mnangagwa decided to put all these portfolios under one ministry?
Dr Masuka: As you have rightly observed, the Ministry not only has a very long name, but it has a very broad mandate as well. The wisdom of His Excellency, the President was that the disjointed and perfunctory approaches of the past, where you had a Ministry of Lands on the one hand and a Ministry of Agriculture on the other was not working well. Agriculture is a business that takes place on land and so it makes sense to bring the two together. That way a farmer does not have to go to a separate ministry to discuss land issues and discuss production issues on that land in another ministry. There is a symbiotic relationship between land and agriculture.
The same applies to fisheries and water. Water is found on land but for far too long we have been saying, we just look at the dams, and yet Zimbabwe has a massive lake under it which does not require any earthmoving. All it requires is a pipe to draw that water called a borehole. So we are looking at underground water resources and we are looking at above ground water resources. So if land is put together with agriculture, it is natural that you extend that to water. You are looking at the tools that the farmer needs to ensure production and productivity on the land. So you bring in mechanisation and you bring in irrigation development. This is how this ministry has been enlarged to reflect that. Fish harvesting takes place in water; and putting fisheries under my Ministry is the most sensible thing to do.
The last addition to the Ministry was rural development. For a long time, we were in resettlement mode where we were taking land and redistributing it to the landless. But the President believes we now need to go a gear up because 99,99%of the land has been redistributed. It’s no longer about resettlement. It’s now about production and productivity. Production is a means to an end. President Mnangagwa has promulgated Vision 2030 targeting an empowered and prosperous upper middle income society by 2030.
Zimbabwe is an agro-based economy and so it is agriculture that must drive that development for Vision 2030 to be achieved. We have seen examples of this in areas like Bubi-Lupane where development has been taken to marginal areas. The communities there are already enjoying the benefits of rural development as the country marches towards Vision 2030.
So even though the Ministry has a broad mandate, if you look at the elements and ingredients that have been blended together, they have been well-thought out. They all belong under one stable.
MH: So how is your ministry structured to ensure you operate effectively and efficiently?
Dr Masuka: In terms of delivery, there had to be some restructuring. Restructuring not just of the Ministry but also of the State enterprises and parastatals under it. We started with Vision 2030. We said let’s have our strategy aligned with an Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy launched by the President in August 2020. This is aligned to [National Development Strategy 1] NDS1 and Vision 2030.
We now have chief directors responsible for the various areas. We have restructured and the main operating directorate is the crops on the ground. In the past we used to have Agritex [Department of Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services], but how do you ensure that there is coordination among all these various elements that were previously housed under different ministries? We have now established a dedicated directorate called the Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Services headed by a chief director. Under this directorate, we have five departments, namely Agritex (as we know it), Livestock Development, Migratory Pest Control, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and Training. We have a Training Department to ensure that farming becomes a business. Not just for the Agritex and livestock officers but for everyone, including the farmer.
We have also restructured agricultural mechanisation and brought in soil conservation and post-harvest technologies under the directorate’s ambit. Water resources, irrigation development, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene [WASH] have been brought together under a separate directorate. We have linked irrigation to water. In the past, these two were separate. Now we are saying, the dam is not the project. Why do we have over 10 000 dams lying idle in the country? It’s because in the past we focused simply on building dams. Dam construction was the responsibility of a separate ministry [whose priorities lay elsewhere, not necessarily agricultural production].
Now the President has directed that the dam is NOT the project. The project is what the water in the dam is meant for. In other words, the project scope had to change. We are now building dams that are impounding the water, paving way for irrigation development, drinking water, fisheries and electricity generation. We have also reconfigured our research system to make it more innovative. Our long-term goal is to refocus our research and development to practical issues which must be informed by the challenges on the ground.
What are the challenges? Climate change is obviously one of them. We need to climate-proof our agriculture and so we need crops and varieties that are suited to the drier regions. Zimbabwe is predicted to become drier in the decades ahead and so we need to prepare for that. Within the [Department of] Veterinary Services we now have Veterinary Field Services which focuses primarily on [animal] diseases. In the past they were dealing with livestock development issues, but now we have transferred these to the directorate responsible for Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Services. Their focus is ensuring that we manage diseases, resuscitate all dip-tanks and step up the fight against tsetse. Thanks to this restructuring, we have started producing our own vaccines. Things are beginning to happen.
We have also reformed some of our parastatals to align them with the transformation. In the past, there used to be the Ministry on the one hand and the parastatals on the other. Now there is increasing alignment. I meet with the parastatals once or twice a year to assess to what extent their mandate is aligned to current policies and the general transformation of the agricultural sector. Consequently, all our 11 parastatals have been given new mandates to align them with the President’s vision. All the boards have embraced their new mandates which inform them of the new strategies. About 10 of the parastatals have already rebranded in line with this transformation.
MH: Let’s talk about these different portfolios under your Ministry one by one. How do you think you have fared in lands, agriculture, fisheries, water and rural development so far?
Dr Masuka: Let’s start logically with the crop side of things. When we launched the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy, it was clear that this country was dependent on imports for its food security. Many countries were producing grain, on the assumption that Zimbabwe offered them a lucrative market. In the 2020-2021 season, when we started climate-proofing agriculture through the introduction of Pfumvudza/Intwasa, we saw an increase in yield in the smallholder sector.
From just under 500-600 kilogrammes per hectare to over 1,039 tonnes per hectare in a single season, leading to the record maize harvest of 2,7 million metric tonnes. We have built on that and consolidated this season. Now we are saying the type of crops grown in an agro-ecological zone is determined, first and foremost, by the climatic conditions and NOT by the farmer’s personal preferences. We call it agro-ecological tailoring.
We have mapped the whole country and know exactly the soil PH of every ward countrywide. We have also capacitated Agritex. Each of the 6 000 Agritex officers now has a motorbike. They are also attending refresher courses to prepare them for this transition. We want them to become business advisors to the farmers because agriculture at household level must become a business. So, largely, now the country is food secure.
We have also transformed the financing landscape for agriculture by re-establishing the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) and giving it a broader mandate. Where we were just lending under Agribank, it’s now AFC Commercial. We now have the Land and Development Bank, which is a dedicated lending arm for farmers. We now have a leasing company, in recognition of the fact that not everyone — A1, communal and A2 farmers included — has the means to purchase implements, like tractors, for tillage. They need start-up support. The start-up ecosystem we have established is AFC. We have allocated them 200 tractors and they have already done tillage on 10 000 hectares and we are allocating them an additional 400 tractors this year which will enable them to increase support to farmers. Timely tillage, availability of inputs and the availability of working capital are key to the transformation of the agricultural sector.
And so AFC together with CBZ Agro have now been restructured. We have moved away from Command Agriculture to what we call the National Enhanced Agricultural Productivity Scheme, which is an institutionalised funding mechanism. In the past, Command Agriculture would disburse inputs through government and prior to that even through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe [RBZ], but we lacked an institutionalised and sustainable financing arrangement for agriculture. This is what is now being provided by the Second Republic. So we will see more farmers creating healthy relationships with the bank to be able to get working capital in addition to inputs.
We have also introduced another innovation. For far too long, the brick and mortar banks have been asking for collateral from farmers in a non-collateralised environment where land belongs to the State. To cater for this, we now have an AFC Insurance Company which provides insurance on the basis of what is happening on the farm as opposed to immovable property. This is the transformation taking place in the cropping space. Resultantly, we are largely food self-sufficient. This has also led to the wheat record harvest of 375 000 tonnes that we had last year.
In livestock, positive things are also happening. Take the problem of debilitating cattle diseases like January disease, for example. To deal with this challenge, we launched the Presidential Tick Grease Scheme under which we distributed 1 kg tick grease to each of the one million cattle-owning households. This has seen not only a phenomenal growth in the livestock sector but a reduction in January disease by 47% in the 2020-2021 season, culminating in a further 37% decline last year. Although we experienced a small spike in January disease earlier this year, it’s now under control. We are also rehabilitating dip-tanks. Altogether, about 4 000 dip-tanks that had become dysfunctional. Following extensive rehabilitation works, about 2 700 are now operational. We will be drilling boreholes at some of these dip-tanks to provide them with a reliable water supply.
Milk production is up by about 17%, although this is still below national demand. On the other hand, the poultry sector has been booming, outperforming all the other sectors. Without doubt, the Presidential Poultry Scheme has accelerated the growth in this sector. We also have the Presidential Goats Scheme under which we have started distributing goats across the length and breadth of the country.
This brings us back to the issue of land. Land is an economic enabler. We must transit from land just to build a home, to land providing us an opportunity for agriculture. In this regard, the President has introduced a raft of policies and interventions to ensure that there is production and productivity on the land.
The first one is that in the past we used to give farmers offer letters. So, for about 22-23 years, all that new farmers had was an offer letter. Now we are giving them permits — A2 permits — on these properties. This will enable them to approach funding institutions and be able to access loans.
In the past, farmers were required to apply for 99-year leases, and were charged for services rendered in assessing their eligibility. The President has directed that farmers are no longer required to apply for 99-year leases. It’s now automatic. It depends on your productivity. In this respect, farmers must now complete what we call Annual Production and Productivity Return Forms which must be submitted through their Agritex officer to government by the 15th of February. Once that is done, an internal committee assesses your production figures after which you get your 99-year lease. This is the transformation taking place on land.
The acquisition of 99-year leases has been a major bottleneck because less than 1% of Zimbabweans on A2 farms had them. There are many productive farmers who had applied for them but were still to be attended to. Now they need not worry because it’s now automatic as long as they are productive on the farms.
We have also gone further in the land space by doing away with fixed farm sizes in a particular region. There are variations from farm to farm. As a result, we have introduced another criterion that the re-planning of farms is not dependent solely on the maximum farm size for the region. It is dependent on the productivity potential of that particular farm. We are now working on the concept of a minimum viable unit. Farming is a business and the jambanja era is over. We are no longer saying, “You start from this tree up to that river”, without first assessing the potential of that piece of land to become a business.
We now have a dedicated technical team that carries out on-the-spot assessments. The President issued the new policy guidelines in August 2021 under which we target multiple farm ownership, abandoned, underutilised and derelict farms for re-organisation and re-planning so that more deserving Zimbabweans can have access to land.
However, not every person who has applied for land will get it. We have 260 000 applicants on the waiting list. Mashonaland West alone has more than 70 000 applicants for A2 farms. It’s not possible to give everyone land. We have 10 000 applicants from the Diaspora. So we are now saying in addition to giving land to those on the waiting list, noting that 20% of allocations are reserved for war veterans and another 20% be given to youths, it means we have to create other avenues to ensure Zimbabweans can participate in the business of agriculture on their land. We have done this by giving the greenlight to joint ventures.
The government and the Ministry have no appetite to take land from one black person and giving it to another. We have said those that are unable for now to productively utilise their land, but have permits or offer letters, must approach the Ministry’s Joint Venture Unit. The unit will match the permit holder with an investor, i.e. someone who does not have land but has pockets that are deep enough to do business on the land. The Ministry is a co-signatory to the joint venture contract to ensure that the land does not remain idle. To date, we have over 2 000 such joint ventures that are subsisting, leading to the increased production on the farms.
MH: So Minister, you are saying there is still a lot of appetite, a big appetite, for land?
Dr Masuka: Yes, there is mega appetite for land. Unfortunately, we can’t satisfy everyone. However, the President has just unveiled a new and innovative arrangement to ensure Zimbabweans participate in agriculture. We are creating a Special Purpose Vehicle. You see, once we continue giving land and sub-dividing it into units, one day we will sub-divide these units into sub-economic units. There is a high risk of villagising Zimbabwe, thereby jeopardising future production. So we are now going to form this corporate, an institutionalised farming framework where anyone who is on the waiting list, whether in Zimbabwe or in the Diaspora, is able to subscribe to this corporate through a shareholding structure. This conglomerate will work the land on behalf of Zimbabweans with a passion for farming. So you don’t have to have a piece of land in order to benefit from the Land Reform Programme. You will be able to benefit from this institutional framework.
MH: In terms of water and fisheries, how would you say your Ministry has fared in fulfilling its mandate?
Dr Masuka: Let’s talk about water first. Like I said earlier, the first policy thrust was to restructure the Ministry and Zinwa [Zimbabwe National Water Authority] as well as the other delivery arms. It’s important to realise that we are not only talking about surface water but underground water as well.
So, under the Presidential Rural Development Programme, for example, we are drilling 35 000 boreholes in 35 000 villages to ensure that women’s and girls’ dignity is restored. With climate change, women and girls walk disproportionately long distances to fetch water from the nearest stream or river. Unfortunately, these rivers are drying up. By sinking a borehole in a particular village, we are ensuring that water is not only a constitutional right, but is now available close by. This water becomes an economic enabler.
In December 2021, the President launched the Village Garden Concept and this is what we are going to be replicating in each of the 35 000 villages across the country. There are about 153 families at Mangwe, Jinjika Village, in Matabeleland South whose lives have been transformed by this Village Garden Concept. If we can replicate this across the country, so much the better.
We have about 450 irrigation schemes on 26 000 hectares that were previously managed by Agritex. However, Agritex deals with extension services and training. Irrigation is an important facet of agriculture which means an irrigation scheme must be run on business lines.
However, we have noted that these irrigation schemes were collapsing every four or five years and government inventions were required. Currently, some 250 irrigation schemes are down, not because the people on the ground are not good farmers, but simply because the set-up is wrong. They cannot attract financing because are not viable as business entities.
Now we have instructed ARDA [Agricultural and Rural Development Authority] to come in with skilled business managers. About 380 out of 450 irrigation schemes have now been handed over to ARDA and they are now being run like businesses. Bubi-Lupane is a good example. This is the model that we are replicating across the country so that the beneficiaries work as a team and are able to secure funding. The beneficiaries are supposed to do two things. In the past, they grew crops and sold any surplus in order to generate some revenue. However, the viable business model demands that the beneficiaries earn some form of remuneration for their efforts every month. At the end of the season, they are paid a production bonus net of production expenses. At Bubi-Lupane Irrigation Scheme, the beneficiaries — about 90 of them — have just been paid ZWL$500 000 each. This is fact, not fiction. You can go and see for yourself the transformation taking place in that rural space. Amazing things are happening there.
MH: In terms of dam construction, how has the Ministry fared?
Dr Masuka: As you will probably know, Zimbabwe has more than 10 000 dams, but unfortunately, not all of them are being fully utilised. We now have an Irrigation Development Alliance that I have just formed comprised of 11 private sector companies. Each of these companies has put in their bid spelling out what they are able to do. Collectively, these companies want to do 100 000 hectares and we are now discussing with each of them to the finer details. The objective is to bring idle dams into production.
I am pleased to say we also have some non-State actors who are keen on partnering us, such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), among others. Collectively, we want to put 350 000 hectares under irrigation by 2025; the figure currently stands at 190 000 hectares so far. We are slightly behind in terms of our programming, but we plan to accelerate the pace. We also have received some Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) assistance from Treasury and we are going to resuscitate an additional 18 irrigation schemes. So quite a lot is happening.
Right now, we have 12 dams that are at various stages of completion. We have already commissioned dams such as Marovanyati [Manicaland Province] and Muchekeranwa [in Mashonaland East]. It was at Muchekeranwa, where we pioneered the new model under which the dam is NOT the project, but what communities can do with the water. The people on the ground are already benefiting immensely from this approach. Dams such as Gwayi-Shangani, Tugwi-Mukosi, Thuli-Manyange, among others, will soon come on stream. For now, we are focusing on completing these projects rather than embarking on new ones. As you will see, in 2023, we will only have one additional dam – Befe — in the drought-prone Midlands Province.
MH: With regards to fisheries, a number of people don’t really know what Fisheries is all about. Can you explain what this portfolio is all about and how the Ministry is faring in terms of meeting its mandate?
Dr Masuka: As previously mentioned, Zimbabwe boasts about 10 000 dams across the country. Although most of the dams are idle, there could be some activity in terms of generating income. We launched the Presidential Community Fisheries Scheme at Muchekeranwa Dam where the Ministry stocks these dams with fish on behalf of the communities. By doing this, we are attracting the private sector to do commercial cage fishing. For now, we are concentrating on Nile tilapia. Our aim was to stock about 300 dams but, sadly, just under 50 have been stocked so far due to funding challenges. However, I am pleased to report that we have now secured 2 million (fingerlings) for distribution to farmers, which will go a long way in accelerating the fisheries project.
We are also going to focus on kapenta in Kariba because unbeknown to some people, since the introduction of these species, at peak we were able to harvest 30 000 metric tonnes of kapenta. The catches have now declined to about 9 000-10 000 metric tonnes. There are issues to do with overfishing on both the Zimbabwean and Zambian sides. We are now working through the Fisheries and Aqua Resources Development Strategy to ensure that we can make this business viable again.
We are also looking at crocodile farming and have engaged the Crocodile Association in our bid to resuscitate the industry. It is our stated objective to increase crocodile skin exports starting with around 75 000 this year and rising to about 90 000-100 000 so that this US$20-25 million industry comes back on stream.
MH: Now that you have spoken about Fisheries, a few months ago we were in Binga and there was an outcry that fishing permits are too expensive. Is there anything that your Ministry can do about this?
Dr Masuka: The permits are still being administered by National Parks, whose focus is biased towards conservation. They have the scientific, historical and institutional knowledge about Kariba Dam. I think as a ministry, we can work with Parks to look into the matter. Parks will have to tell us about the stocking of Kariba Dam and the fish offtake so that kapenta fishing can be carried out sustainably. Once that happens, the licensing can then take place under my Ministry. Currently, the determination of [fish] size, offtake levels, issuance of permits, monitoring of fishing activities and arrest of offenders falls under Parks. We believe the separation of these roles will help in clearing the air thereby ensuring the resuscitation of this critical industry. This, I believe, will lead to a lowering of the high cost of fishing permits.
MH: As a Ministry, you set a target to establish a US$8,2 billion agricultural industry by 2025. Are you on course to meet this target?
Dr Masuka: Yes, we are on course and let me tell you one aspect that is going to accelerate our march towards the target – mechanisation. Mechanisation is so important for us to attain this US$8,2 billion target. In fact, I think we have already surpassed it because we grew by 36% in the 2020-2021 season alone and we have been on a growth trajectory since then. Although we had a mid-season dry spell that affected cotton and maize production last year, I think all the other crop and livestock sectors performed very well. So, certainly, I think we have surpassed the US$8,2 billion target. This is why we are now doing a mid-term review of the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy so that we can give ourselves a more ambitious target.
However, like I said earlier, mechanisation is a massive enabler. In the past, around the 1980s, you remember when we resettled people as a decongestion measure from communal areas to resettlement areas which we used to call minda mirefu. The term minda mirefu was just a colloquial reference to the arduous task that ox-drawn ploughs had to go through. It was minda mirefu because we didn’t have enough draught capacity to till the land. Consequently, even though we moved these people to areas with better rainfall and better soils, production and productivity remained low in the absence of mechanisation.
Mechanisation at a higher scale and at the pace envisioned by government will be our game changer. The government has intervened in a massive way. We have about 9 000 tractor units in the country. Over the past two years, government has brought in over 2 000 tractors through the Belarus Phase One and Phase Two programmes. We have just signed a Belarus Phase Three programme under which we are bringing in an additional 3 700 tractors.
As for the private sector, we have formed the Mechanisation Development Alliance and have identified 10 companies who are expected to bring in another 5 000 tractors. So in another four or so years, we should be self-sufficient in terms of tillage. As you know, timely tillage is essential for high production and productivity.
However, let’s not just look at mechanisation in resettlement areas. Let’s look at mechanisation in communal areas and, make no mistake, this mechanisation is going to happen. Just imagine there are two century-old inventions that have sustained agricultural productivity in communal areas – the hoe and the plough. We now need to agree that these two technologies have done enough and cannot take us to the next level of production and productivity where we want to transform communal areas for surplus-oriented farming. We think we can bring appropriate technology in this space by facilitating mechanisation through the two-wheelers and the introduction of herbicides to minimise the use of hoes.
MH: Minister, let’s talk about value addition in agriculture. How far has your Ministry gone in ensuring that there is value addition in the agricultural sector?
Dr Masuka: The President’s philosophy is that agricultural development must lead to rural industrialisation and that rural industrialisation must cause rural development which catalyses and facilitate the attainment of Vision 2030. Once you have contextualised that, you can see that value addition and beneficiation are essential elements for the transformation of the agricultural sector. However, it is time to rid ourselves of the old mindset that farmers must deliver their produce to towns and cities. Rural industrialisation is the new buzzword. This is why under Rural Development 8.0, which is a series of outcome and impact-oriented interventions, which we call Presidential interventions, we are looking at aggregation, value addition and beneficiation in communal areas.
In the same vein, this is why we have transformed some of our parastatals. For example, ARDA now has a Rural Development and Industrialisation Division. Zinwa now has an Irrigation Development and Industrialisation Division to ensure that we can add value and industrialise at village level. Whatever we produce, we must aggregate and add value so that farmers can see agriculture as a business.
Don’t forget, too, that agriculture supplies no less than 63% of the raw materials required by industry. So linkages with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce are happening and this is what we want to see in cotton, leather, dairy, sugarcane production, etc. So, quite a lot is happening in this area.
MH: In the same vein, you have repeatedly said your Ministry intends to transform about 18 000 small-scale farmers into agricultural enterprises by 2025. What is the thinking behind this move?
Dr Masuka: What we are actually saying is that we have classified our farmers into three categories. The first category are the communal farmers — the three million rural households, about 9,2 million Zimbabweans and 61% of our population. These people have always looked at agriculture as a form of subsistence yet for the sake of attaining Vision 2030, we should change the circumstances of these 9,2 million people so that they are not passive spectators but active economic players. We have done so through the introduction of Pfumvudza/Intwasa and now the repackaged Rural Development 8.0. If you look at the impact of this cocktail of interventions, the households will definitely be on their way to meeting the objectives of Vision 2030.
The second category is the old resettlement and A1 farmers — about 360 000 of them. Again because they have better rainfall and better soils, they can produce a surplus even though they are not classified as commercial. We want to inculcate a culture that your six hectares can be turned into a commercial enterprise.
We now have about 23 000 A2 farmers countrywide. We are saying that although you are a commercial farmer, that is not good enough. We want you to be a perennially successful businessman or woman. In practice, this means it’s not just about growing crops, but value addition and beneficiation so that farming becomes a holistic business. This is the transformation thrust that we have set for ourselves.
MH: And you are also targeting to create one million jobs. Are you being realistic here, Minister?
Dr Masuka: Yes, certainly. We can create one million jobs easily. If you look at the transformation of the three classes of farmers I have mentioned above, you will understand this figure is quite achievable. If you look, for example, at the three million rural households, they are now growing a surplus and this will create many opportunities. You see, one of the mistakes we used to make in the past was to make a distinction between what are termed staple food crops and cash crops. It created the wrong impression that maize is not a cash crop, but one to be consumed at household level. That was wrong because maize is, indeed, an important cash crop. So now we want the three million households to view the production of maize as a business that can boost their cashflows. If the households produce a surplus which they can sell for cash, it means they are now involved in some economic activity.
Then there are the 360 000 A1 farmers. Can you imagine each one of them employing just two people? Already you have created more than 700 000 jobs because people now see farming as a business and these people will be rewarded for their labour. From being surplus-oriented, they are now commercially-oriented. Just imagine the A2 farmers each one employing about five to 10 people, that is another 230 000 people employed. So, a million jobs can easily come from agriculture alone. And, here, I am talking about decent jobs.
MH: Clearly, your Ministry is aiming to do a lot. What are some of the challenges you are facing as you transform and grow the agricultural sector?
Dr Masuka: You see, in any transformation, there are some people who are comfortable with the conventional way of doing things. Transformations, by their nature, are difficult. I have formed 16 working groups. Earlier today, at 7.00am, I was interacting with some youths on my digital platform. I meet with them quarterly. We have a cotton working group, a tobacco working group, a sugarcane working group, a crops working group and a number of other working groups. The crops working group is the main one attended by about 100 participants every week. We meet on my platform every Thursday at 7.00am. The farmers’ unions presidents have their own working groups. These groups bring together all stakeholders in agriculture so that we move together in this transformation which, as I have said earlier, is no stroll in the park.
MH: You start work at 7.00am?
Dr Masuka: I actually start work at 6.00am. This has always been my culture. My expectation is that my staff are here at 5:45am to prepare to start work at 6.00am. Any farmer who wants to see us can walk in at 6.00am and find us at work. As you know, farming starts early in the morning and so we must be there with the farmers so that we can assist them in the transformation. There is no them and us. They should see that we, too, are committed to the transformation.
I am very happy that I have also learnt from President Mnangagwa. His commitment and work ethic are just a marvel. This is the work ethic I am inculcating into all my staff at the Ministry. Besides starting work early, I also travel extensively across the country because I want to be in the thick of things. I want to talk to farmers about the transformation that is taking place. We do provincial rounds once every month. I want to be with the farmers, interact with them and understand the challenges they are facing.
MH: Yeah, we were at Jinjika Village in Mangwe (Matabeleland South) a few months ago and we were pleased to hear that you are very popular there.
Dr Masuka: That is what is happening everywhere we go, but that popularity belongs to the President. Each time we go to these communities, they tell us the levels of involvement and consultation are unprecedented. I always tell the villagers that all I am doing is fulfilling the President wishes to transform our agricultural sector. I can’t claim to be the Minister of Lands and Agriculture while sipping tea or coffee in the comfort of my office. My job is out there where the farmers are.
MH: Minister, I am happy that you have said there is a shift from Command Agriculture because there are allegations that through schemes such as Command Agriculture and Pfumvudza/Intwasa, the government seems to be spoiling the farmers by doling out free inputs. Some critics have even suggested that this is creating a dependency syndrome among the new farmers. What is your response to these allegations?
Dr Masuka: I think the concepts have been misconstrued. Let’s start with Pfumvudza/Intwasa. At its inception, the programme was just about handing out inputs with very little accountability. We have since rectified that. Pfumvudza/Intwasa is now a contract — a contract between the President and households to assure food security at household level. So the three million farmers now sign contracts with our Agritex officers to confirm that they have received inputs. In addition, they give us two contact numbers so that we can verify that they have actually received the inputs. The committee that is distributing inputs has been changed and enlarged to facilitate accountability.
We have also restructured the GMB [Grain marketing Board]. The parastatal’s duties are no longer confined to clerical work involving the receipt and distribution of inputs. The GMB is now the supply chain manager for government. They must account for the inputs they have received from central government as well as how they have been disbursed. To do this, the GMB now holds weekly meetings with Agritex officers to discuss how much has been distributed and the impact on the ground in all its catchment areas. To cut a long story short, Pfumvudza/Intwasa is a contract for the achievement of food self-sufficiency at household level.
Anyone who gets inputs under the Presidential Inputs Scheme for grains and/or cotton must ensure that they deliver to the designated agent. For grains, it’s the GMB and for cotton, it’s Cottco [Cotton Company of Zimbabwe]. So let’s be very clear, this is a contract.
Let’s turn to Command Agriculture. Yes, there could be some misconception that Command [Agriculture] is scheme under which a farmer gets inputs from government and is not obliged to pay back. This is why we have said our farmers must have a change of mindset, i.e. to understand that farming is a business and this must be fostered through a bank. It is in this regard that we have established these two main banks – AFC and CBZ — for farmers to build solid relationships with financial institutions. The farmers will need these banks in future as government scales down its support.
With this in mind, we are no longer giving inputs directly under the National Enhanced Agricultural Productivity Scheme like we were doing under Command Agriculture. Farmers are now required to go to either AFC or CBZ. Government only provides the necessary guarantees. So this is the transformation we are talking about. Farmers will be required to pay back according to their obligations. It is by paying back that discipline will be restored in the sector so that more banks can open their doors to farmers. We are putting the right policy environment to ensure the transformation proceeds as smoothly as possible. We have also amended laws and regulations to guarantee protection of investments in this critical sector.
MH: There are so many positive stories in the agricultural sector. What would you say to former white commercial farmers and even some black people who think the land reform can one day be reversed?
Dr Masuka: Land reform is irreversible. That is a closed chapter. The former white commercial farmers are fully aware of this because in 2020, we signed the Global Compensation Deed which clearly states that land reform is irreversible and that is a fact. We have also agreed with the former white farmers under the Global Compensation Deed to recognise that over the 100 years that they have been on the farms, they invested about US$3,5 billion which government has accepted and we will be making payments. Professor Mthuli Ncube, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, is leading a resource mobilisation team comprising former white farmers and ourselves to look at how we can raise the necessary resources to pay them. There is a general acceptance in that sector that there can be no going back on land reform.
In the black community, when we embarked on the Land Reform Programme, especially the fast-track one, we unfortunately acquired some farms owned by some blacks. We are exploring mechanisms to redress that anomaly. Besides that, let me make it clear that land reform is irreversible. It’s a done deal.
MH: Minister, you are sounding so optimistic about production figures in maize, wheat, cotton and so on in the current season. Where is this optimism coming from exactly?
Dr Masuka: The optimism is coming from this whole of government approach and this whole-of-sector approach. As I have indicated earlier, we have 16 working groups with farmers. On the other hand, there are now linkages between government ministries to ensure that we transform the agricultural sector. One of the critical ministries is Finance and Economic Development. We have a coordination platform every fortnight with the Minister of Finance and Economic Development and our teams to ensure that the financing for agriculture is available on time. Resources are always a limiting factor, but under the circumstances, I think we have done quite well.
Based on this, when we plan for our summer cropping season, we will take every stakeholder on board so that each one appreciates his/her role. We know exactly how much is going to be financed under the Presidential Inputs Scheme, how much, where and when the resources are required. We also know what is going to be financed under the National Enhanced Agricultural Productivity Scheme through the government-guaranteed schemes under the auspices of the AFC and CBZ.
We know, too, what the private sector will bring in because we have a policy that 40% of what a private contractor, a miller, needs must be secured through value-chain financing, not necessarily going to GMB. We know what the individual farmers are going to put under maize, soyabeans, etc. We then consolidate this and we track this on a weekly basis through constant engagement with stakeholders, including the presidents of farmers’ unions, RBZ, Ministry of Finance and all the inputs suppliers. Every Monday, at our senior management meeting, I track all this with the internal team. This gives us confidence that the momentum that we have built for winter with a record 375 00 metric tonnes can be replicated for maize, traditional grains and sunflowers this season.
I have no doubt in my mind that if we focus on the agronomy-based management practices, it is possible for Zimbabwe to have a record maize, traditional grains and sunflower crop output in the 2022/2023 season. However, this is a collective, collaborative and cooperative effort by all stakeholders that gives us the confidence that we are doing the right thing.
MH: How far are we from confidently declaring that Zimbabwe is now self-sufficient in terms of food?
Dr Masuka: We are almost there, if not there already. Certainly, you have seen that we aimed to do this by adopting a brick-by-brick, stone-by-stone approach and that vision by the President is quite insightful. That methodological approach to scaling up things is working wonders.
We said we wanted to do away with imports and become food self-sufficient. We targeted maize and wheat. In both cases, we have sufficient stocks. We have sufficient wheat for 13 months for the country. In terms of maize, although last year we produced 1,5 million metric tonnes against the required 1,8 million, we had a carry-over of over 500 000 metric tonnes from the previous year. As we speak, we have more than 400 000 metric tonnes of maize and traditional grains in the GMB silos. We have said for now, let’s suspend the ZimVac [Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee] statistics on access of food by communities. We are going to avail maize and traditional grains to all the households in communal areas that need them.
MH: Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine has disrupted the distribution of agric produce like wheat and the effects are being felt in many countries. What lessons has Zimbabwe learnt from that disruption considering the transformation and growth in our agricultural sector? Are we doing anything to capitalise on the situation?
Dr Masuka: Certainly, just before the outbreak of that conflict, the President had already directed that we should move towards food self-sufficiency, food security and food sovereignty. The President actually emphasised the need to produce enough wheat for ourselves. When that conflict broke out, we had already established the policy intent to produce sufficient wheat.
Of course, we have learnt some lessons. There have been some global disruptions in the supply chain, fertilisers are not arriving on time and so on. The biggest lesson we have learnt is the need to localise the production of our key farming inputs. This is why we now have the Accelerated Fertiliser Localisation Plan to assure this nation that, in the next four to five years, we will have sufficient basal and top dressing fertilisers to meet our domestic requirements. This is to ensure that the growth and momentum we envisage in the agricultural sector can be sustained internally.
MH: In January 2023, together with President Mnangagwa, you attended the Dakar 2 Feed Africa Summit in Senegal and came back from the summit sounding very upbeat. Tell us, how was the story about the transformation taking place in Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector received at the summit?
Dr Masuka: This Zimbabwean story is an amazing one. Each time the President summarises it, and he does so, so briefly and to the point, he always leaves many people wondering if this is the Zimbabwe that has gone through the tough Land Reform Programme that led to the country being slapped with illegal sanctions. There is excitement that the Zimbabwean model can be replicated across Africa.
The Dakar 2 Summit focused on Africa’s food sovereignty. You see, about three years ago, Africa was importing about US$45 billion worth of food. That figure has since climbed to US$100 billion, while Zimbabwe is actually scaling down its food imports and becoming self-sufficient.
You will be seeing, in the not-too-distant future, visits at very high level of officials from across the continent and beyond. Many people want to visit Zimbabwe to see for themselves the practical lessons on how Zimbabwe has managed to transform its agriculture and reduce the food import bill with very little support from the outside world. Many people want to understand and study the Zimbabwean miracle. They want to know how, with the illegal sanctions in place, we have transformed our agricultural sector.
We were not getting any support from outside the country but we have turned the corner. We used government resources and came up with a priority list of things to be done where, when, how and why. Of course, we are now getting support from outside the country [in terms of mechanisation, for instance], but we started this journey of transforming our agriculture on our own.
MH: But Minister, how exactly did this Zimbabwean miracle, to transform the agricultural sector, happen with the illegal sanctions in place? Can you shed some light?
Dr Masuka: When a country is under sanctions, government has to do two things. First, it must be a strong actor and, secondly, it must be a strong facilitator for the private sector to come in. President Mnangagwa has really managed to muster this and that is why we are now flying.
With or without sanctions, the agricultural sector will thrive and prosper. We are past the stage of losing sleep over the illegal sanctions. Yes, the illegal sanctions are affecting us, but we have found our way out and the Zimbabwean miracle is not about to stop.
MH: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was in Zimbabwe in January to launch the Second Phase of the Zimbabwe-Belarus Farm Mechanisation Programme. How do you see this programme assisting in the transformation taking place in the agricultural sector?
Dr Masuka: Mechanisation is an enabler. We noticed that without mechanisation we could not go very far. The President saw this gap and he put in place two interventions. The first intervention is that not every farmer will have the money, even if you make the tractors available, to purchase them. So now we have an institutionalised leasing arrangement for tractors within the AFC Leasing Company to complement what the DDF [District Development Fund] is doing. We have allocated additional tractors to DDF so that they can resuscitate their tillage services. Between them, these two State agents will be able to provide cost-effective tillage services.
As for the source of the tractors, you need someone who understands both your history and your philosophy. In this regard, I think in President Lukashenko we have found a reliable partner to assist us in transforming our agricultural sector. It’s not only about tractors. We have also increased the silo capacity under the Belarus scheme. We have also moved a gear up in the conveyancing of inputs and grains because even if you have fertiliser you may not be able to move it as quickly as you wish due to logistical challenges. So we are creating a core fleet within GMB to increase effectiveness and efficiency in the distribution of both tractors and inputs.
The additional 3 700 tractors bring the number of tractors supplied to us by Belarus to a total of 6 000. This is mechanisation on a mega scale, something unprecedented in Zimbabwe’s long history.
MH: As we conclude, how do you see the country’s agricultural sector in the next four to five years? Do you think we will one day regain our status as the Breadbasket of Africa?
Dr Masuka: Well, we don’t want to go back to the status as of the Breadbasket of Africa. We want to become the agro-industrial hub of Africa. We no longer want to export grains. We want to export finished products, which is why agricultural development is inextricably tied to value addition and beneficiation, to rural industrialisation and to rural development for the attainment of Vision 2030.
In four to five years, what I would like to see is that when you walk into a village, there is no one who is seeking to board a city-bound bus in search of urban employment. The village folk should by that time realise that there are vast opportunities right underneath their feet. That will be my greatest satisfaction.
MH: What do you think of President Mnangagwa’s spirited focus and interest in transforming the agricultural sector?
Dr Masuka: President Mnangagwa is a highly successful farmer himself. In fact, he has graduated from being just a highly successful farmer to become a leader in the business of agriculture which is why we are saying there is a model which we can replicate across the country. We want the 23 000 A2 farmers to shift away from commercial farming to actually industrialising their farms as we are seeing at the President’s farm. This is a model that is working.
President Mnangagwa is living proof that agriculture can transform our lives. As you will probably be aware, the President comes from a family that has a long history in farming and so he is leading by example. He is an inspiration.
