The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure: Senior Reporter
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has set aside $20 million for the revival of the horticulture industry, which despite its huge potential to generate foreign currency for the nation, has largely been in a moribund state.The RBZ facility was part of the central bank’s quest to ameliorate agriculture productivity and buttress economic recovery. RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya told The Manica Post this week that horticulture should be rejuvenated to its original status when it was the second largest foreign currency earner after tobacco, contributing an average four percent of gross domestic product.
At its peak in 1999, horticulture earned the country annual revenue of US$142m, with Zimbabwe being envied as the third country after the Netherlands and Israel in the flower production industry.
Horticulture is a specialised type of farming that favours a somewhat wet climate, good soils, fairly low temperatures and a consistent water supply throughout the year.
The production of horticultural crops tends therefore to be concentrated in Natural Regions One, Two and Three, which receive in excess of 500mm of rainfall per year.
Dr Mangudya said beneficiaries can start applying through their banks, adding that farmers should take advantage of good rains to expand horticulture infrastructure, which will translate to job creation.
“We have come up with a $20m facility to revive the horticulture sector, and beneficiaries can apply through their banks. RBZ’s thrust is to ensure that the horticulture industry is back to where it was before,” said Dr Mangudya.
Zimbabwe used to export about 85 percent of its flowers to the Netherlands while about 90 percent of the total fresh vegetables landed in Britain, South Africa, Zambia and Namibia and 80 percent of fruits were consumed by British and South African markets.
Roses produced in Banket, Trelawney, Concession, Glendale, Bindura, Harare, Goromonzi and Kwekwe constituted 70 percent of cut-flower exports from Zimbabwe. Other flowers grown and exported include proteas, asters and chrysanthemums. Annual varieties produced in large volumes include ammi majus and buplearum. Smaller volumes of delphinium, carthamus, craspedia, euphorbia, callistephus and molucella were also produced.
Currently, Zimbabwe is importing fruits like apples, pears, plum, peach apricots, nectarine and grape from South Africa.
“The economy revival should be buttressed by increased agriculture productivity. We need to reduce our import bill and increase our exports. We need to move from being a consumptive to a productive economy, hence we should take advantage of the good rains to expand infrastructure, increase jobs, fiscal space, reduce imports and poverty,” said Dr Mangudya, adding that exporters will get a 10 percent export incentive.
Horticultural production plummeted from 142 000 tonnes in 1999 to 39 175 tonnes in 2010.
The 2012 Zimtrade Report on horticulture cited challenges blighting the sector as power outages which grossly affect fresh produce exports because they require certain temperatures to be maintained and also affect irrigation of the crops.
Labour shortages, compounded by low wages affected production because most farm workers opted for gold and diamond panning as a source of livelihood.
The highly technical and labour intensive enterprise requires very high start up costs especially for new farmers, infrastructure like greenhouses, cold rooms and working capital, of which many farmers cannot afford as the whole agricultural industry requires massive investment in infrastructure and support from the banking sector.
Dilapidated irrigation infrastructure and stringent phyto-sanitary demands or measures on quality, food safety and hygiene especially from Europe have also led to the collapse of the sector.
Access to finance has been the biggest bottle-neck in the sector mainly because of the absence of a land market which prevents financial institutions from granting loans to farmers because there is little or no collateral to support loans.
Also the absence of security of tenure has seen a number of farmers unwilling to undertake any medium to long term investments on farms, as a result, a number of green houses are lying and neither the government nor the banks are coming up with strategies to assist farmers.
The expansion of the horticulture industry will have a positive impact on various other industries, both domestic and foreign.
These include service providers such as marketing, exporting, freight, consultancy, forwarding, financial and input suppliers like agro-chemical, greenhouses, packaging, coverings, fans, uniforms, irrigation, refrigerated trucks, timber and electrical instruments.Unfortunately, the farmers tasked with the expansion of the sector today have neither the capacity nor the know-how to run the projects given to them. Primarily, they need government assistance in terms of an enabling agricultural policy.
