Zimbabwe Food Security in Perspective – New Dimensions and Potential areas for further Investigation.

 I was on a private journey a few days ago that took me through parts of Mashonaland, Masvingo and Manicaland along the major highways and I discovered something that got me to some serious thinking. During the two midweeks of January we saw some significant rainfall in most of the country you would expect to see a corresponding good crop around the country since most of the time we blame bad rains for poor yields but what I saw in the countryside does not seem to portray that picture. It seems to me that the average family will not produce enough grains for the whole year even if the weather is good enough for that year. Of cause the farming season is not yet over but the picture already looks grim for most of the people and this year you can as well give the rains a break. Our food security problems do not seem to entirely if at all lie on the weather or lack of inputs. For me it seems we need to come to a point where we just agree that there are some areas in Zimbabwe that are not really suitable for maize production. If I put together what I saw during that journey and my own experience since childhood I would controversially say that on average the grain output for the average rural Zimbabwean family has increased in the past 10 years but this has not had the same effect on the national food security of the whole country and there are some potential good explanations to that.

Zimbabwe is divided into several (about 5) agricultural regions in relation to climate and soil type and the bulk of our grain produce traditionally came from those regions that are commonly considered conducive for maize (and wheat) production at least at a commercial level. This region roughly includes Chegutu, parts of Zvimba, Centinary, Mazowe, parts of Goromonzi and Marondera as well as some areas around Mutare rural and parts of Mutasa amoung others. It was in these areas that we saw a concentration of commercial farming hence high grain yield pre 2000 era. Significant technical, logistical and material support was also offered to peasant farmers across the whole country in the form of inputs and Agritex extension support programs but the yields from most of the rural areas were never enough to sustain the food requirements of the country even of those particular farmers who benefited from such support and this could have been probably because of two main reasons. The first reason would be the fact that the Majority of our communal areas lie in areas that do not have good agricultural soils and secondly the standard annual rainfall in most of these areas is below acceptable grain (especially maize) growing ranges. In other words besides the few good years when rainfall would be “normal” – which are apparently uncommon- these areas cannot produce even subsistent yields. Compounded by lack of good agricultural practice and proper inputs the results are almost always dire. These issues I believe can be easily supported or refuted by publicly available records and some small sample survey around the country.

If the aforementioned facts are deemed true it then assumes that there is a specific region in Zimbabwe that is suitable for grain production and the concentration of maize production before 2000 was in these areas. If we hold this to be true it then follows that if the average annual maize production in most communal areas in Zimbabwe has been on the increase because of better farming practices then the fact that our food security has been going down means that our maize production base has been eroded which seems to be a specific well-defined agricultural region. Again if this assertion is considered accurate then by the same token any food security approach in Zimbabwe should put primary focus on areas that certainly produce results and secondary focus on areas that may with the blessing of Mother Nature may produce results. If one is to look at the maize production statistics of Zimbabwe’s region two in the past 10 years you are likely to find out that the production has almost always been average or above average even during so called dry or draught seasons. If this be true then we need to calculate our average annual national grains consumption in metric tons as well as the total average potential grain production of all the arable land in the high production region two and we will be able to calculate our national food security potential. Remember these calculations would be focusing on region two since successive years have shown that this region has a better potential than the rest of the country on average.

 The argument is that if we focus our national resources on maximising production in areas which we are almost guaranteed of good harvest we could as well do that and this would save the country of resources while improving crop yields. Imagine a situation where every arable land in these identified areas of potential good yield is put to productive use then it makes good economic and developmental sense. Our challenge would probably be more political than logistical because such an approach may not go well with certain sections of the political elite since most of their political leverage is derived from farming inputs distribution albeit in areas that they well know are unlikely to receive any reasonable farming rains or whose soils are unsuitable for maize production. After all the idea is not to do away with maize production in Matabeleland, Masvingo, Manicaland and parts of Mashonaland but to maximise production in identified areas or high yields as a national policy for the benefit of those areas that have no maize production potential. In any case it would not matter how many tons of maize seed and fertiliser you would deliver to Masvingo and most of the Midlands, you would not get any reasonable returns. Otherwise we would do better by trying to identify crops that would do much better in such areas and focus research on developing such crops and their proper varieties for every district or area. A good example is what the people of Gokwe have been able to do with cotton for successive years they have been able to produce reasonably average yield although the issue of pricing has been a detriment to their efforts.

In fact the issue of agricultural produce pricing has an important role to play and if the government does not realise that a drastic policy has to be crafted that seeks to compliment farmers efforts then no technical support would lead to sustainable good yields even in the identified areas of potential good yield. However, considering the fact that the majority of Zimbabwe cannot produce its own food one would expect that if the government comes up with a proper distribution strategy then market forces will even things out of cause with some government intervention.              

I believe Zimbabwe is endowed is a uniquely good climatic and relief combination which can be utilised for the benefit of the whole country. If coal is being mined in the Zambezi valley region, supplied and used all over Zimbabwe I see no reason why we can do the same with maize. The same goes for sugar, tobacco, cotton, diamonds and many other commodities. All these do not have a common national special coverage but the benefits have a national character. Remember most of the farming in our rural communities is more of a social activity than a commercial activity hence the need for a national commercially focused maize production strategy hence food security strategy.

Otherwise what we need is a proper mapping of potential high yield areas followed by land utilisation strategies, then extensive support system and finally a proper pricing and distribution strategy and our food woes will be over. As I thought about the issues raised above I realised that the use of GIS in Agriculture becomes very critical and imperative because it then enables a comprehensive area mapping, controlled resource allocation and monitoring as well as conclusive spatial analysis that will provide us with the relationships between relief, climate and crop yield among other variables. In light of that and in order to investigate the soundness of my proposed approach have decided to develop a GIS that will put together various variables such as relief, climate, temperature, soil type, hydrology, agricultural practices crop yield and such other information and do a spatial analysis to determine the major factors that affect crop production and which crops are suitable where and under what circumstances. This project is expected to inconclusively reveal the real factors behind crop production in Zimbabwe and hopefully will help inform the development of a food security policy that is informed by proper scientific investigation not political mongering.       

Claudios Hakuna is a University of Zimbabwe Sociology graduate and a UNISA M.A. Sociology student. He is also a student of GIS and Remote Sensing and is interested in the use of GIS technology for the purposes Development.