Agricultural inputs: Government leading by example

Zimbabweans need to applaud the effort being made by government of making sure that the agricultural inputs for this farming season are available and that farmers get access to such inputs without delay. Such a move of availing farming inputs to the farmers is quite noble considering the fact that the Meteorological Department has recently predicted that the country could receive normal to above normal rainfall this coming agricultural season.

The fact that the government has managed to raise funds for both the command agriculture programs and the Presidential Input Support Scheme is a welcome development that would see the whole country busy in agricultural activities. Interesting information is that those agricultural inputs are now said to be at the distribution centres across the country and this is good for some farmers as the farming season is within us now.

Farmers need to prepare their lands so that they are not caught unprepared by the first rains. It would not make an economic sense for the farmers to get those agricultural inputs with unprepared land as that would derail the effort of the government of availing those agricultural inputs. Farmers should make sure that they do not derail this government`s programs by not taking farming seriously. There is need for a hands on approach in farming so that proper management of land is effected properly. With the government frantically putting effort of availing some farming inputs, it is now left to the farmers to make sure that this agricultural season is a success.

Actually those with powers to distribute such agricultural inputs should make sure that the deserving farmers are the once who are provided with those inputs as soon as possible. The government should work tirelessly to remove bureaucracies in the distribution of such agricultural inputs because some bureaucracies end up spoiling the proper distribution of such inputs. Time could be taken in having some long chains of reporting system thereby consuming the very agricultural season in which the farmers need to get down to business.

For that reason the government should make sure that those who would be given duties to distribute those agricultural inputs are people of good repute and trust. Effort should be made to make sure that some bigwigs in government are not allowed close to the distribution of such agricultural inputs. History has taught Zimbabweans that some bigwigs have a tendency of giving orders to their juniors to divert such inputs to their farms thereby depriving the vulnerable communal farmers. Such behaviours must be checked and stopped as to make sure that transparency is maintained in the distribution of those inputs to the deserving farmers.

Unconfirmed report which has been going around is that one of the former bigwigs in government threw large quantities of fertilizer into his farm dam when rumour mongering was that the ant-corruption unity was to visit him. That act was done despite the fact that some communal farmers had no fertiliser at that time but that selfish bigwig only did that for his personal aggrandisement. So this time around such corrupt and selfish type of bigwigs in government should not be allowed to come close to the distribution of such agricultural inputs.

As such, all those with influential positions in government should be monitored to avoid unnecessary deprivation of inputs to the deserving farmers. May be as a measure to avoid bigwigs from abusing those inputs various officials from different government departments should be involved in the distributions of those agricultural inputs so that there would be a check and balance in the process. If there is a mixture of some government officials from different government departments there would fear each if they want to start corrupt activities.

On the hand the government should put down monitoring mechanisms of how those agricultural inputs should be distributed. There is need to make sure that some recipients are true farmers who would utilise them effectively. Of late there were some reports which were going around that some of the previous recipients of those agricultural inputs ended up selling them to those who would have failed to get them instead of utilising them in the agricultural activities. So the government should make sure that those recipients need to have clear identifications of their own, confirming that he/she has a land to utilise in this farming season.

Agricultural inputs should not be made available to everyone as there could be a danger of failing to satisfy serious farmers in the expense of some underserving people and fake farmers. Serious assessment and vetting of the so called farmers must be done so that real farmers get such agricultural inputs. Actually those involved in the distribution of some agricultural inputs should be assisted with those having valuable information on the recipients in any area. Such information would assist in making sure to the distributors of those agricultural inputs that they would be given to the real farmers.

It would not be proper for the government to source a lot of agricultural inputs only for such inputs to be mishandled resulting in the government losing a lot in this noble idea. Zimbabwe has been encountering food shortages and this noble idea of coming up with the agricultural inputs for some farmers could assist the country in arresting some food shortages.

The idea of having the command agriculture which aims to make the country to become self-reliant in the food distribution is quite noble. If the government is able to make this command agriculture a success story Zimbabwe could find herself back on the food basket of the region. For that reason all those involved in the distribution of some agricultural inputs need to be serious and be transparent in this noble idea. Zimbabweans should help the government to attain its objectives and aims making food availability possible by making sure that they do all the programs of the government so that Zimbabwe gets back to the food basket of the region again.