Page 57 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 8

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Even when exotic crops like wheat the breadbasket of the world, it must be purchased every season
and South American grains were doesn't speak to volume because with fertilizers and pesticides,
first brought and cultivated in South Africa always produced diminished our rural & small scale
Zimbabwean soils. They developed more, but Zimbabwe was a basket farmers’ capacity to farm without
a unique and distinct flavor that was of quality (compared to South Afri- capital, yet these farmers had always
distinctly Zimbabwean and people ca’s low quality truck loads) which been the biggest producers of most
could not get enough of. only a few were privileged enough of our cash crops without capital
to afford. and inputs.
The Guinean President, the British
Royal family and a number of lead- Globalization Sanctions Nexus Fertilizer, Chemical And Falling
ing hotels were renowned for their With rising industrial farming, com- Yield Cycle
preference for Zimbabwean beef, petition fuelled by western subsi- Over time, our rural & small scale
vegetables and tea. dies, falling prices and lower returns farmers [particularly maize and cot-
Our cotton made some of the best for small scale farmers. Our maize, ton farmers] who had traditionally
fabrics on the continent, while our cotton, wheat and soybean produc- grown the bulk of our crops without
gold leaf tobacco continues to be tion suffered as our farmers became capital for generations. Were now
treasured by leading cigarette manu- uncompetitive and unprofitable in deceived to invest in buying hybrid
facturers for flavoring their top line these cash crops alongside leading, seeds, fertilizers and pesticides each
brands. low cost, industrial farming nations. season to compete as generic, low
cost industrial farmers on the global
Chemical Farming Changed The Coupled with land reform, the market.
Game resultant ZDERA sanctions in 2001 As a result losing their traditional
However, with the advent of com- and the accompanying 2003 exec- farming practices and unique or-
mercial farming, the country began utive order sanctions that targeted ganic differentiation, distinction and
to lose its reputation as a producer our seed, fertilizer, chemical com- positioning. And once they lost that
of a distinct, sought after palette of panies and agri-industry’s financial status by cooption into this capital
agricultural produce. sector. and fertilizer intensive chemical
A decline exacerbated by the adop- Our fertilizer factories and agricul- farming cycle.
tion of industrial, chemical farming ture finance houses were forced to It gave rise to other complications
practices that rely heavily on the use close or import costly inputs that such as weeds, which then re-
of hybrid seeds, monoculture [the made our produce the most expen- quired herbicides that destroy soil
opposite of inter-cropping and crop sive in the region. microbes, fertility, insects and the
rotation], synthetic fertilizers and Seed companies like Seedco were small creatures that feed on para-
pesticides that quickly commodified taken over by subsidiaries of foreign sites that attack crops in the absence
what used to be a unique brand of western biotech monopolies like of these microbes that control
produce. Monsanto. Leading to an insidious them.
With that our once superior campaign through our extension The result: entry into single entry,
produce that came from rich soils workers, to destroy traditional open no exit perpetual, costly, destructive
and traditional farming practices, variety seeds to substitute them cycle of chemical farming that de-
became commodified. with hybrids aimed at fostering seed stroys soil, environment, yield and
dependency for cash crops like ultimately competitiveness along-
Now our produce is substitutable cotton, maize, wheat and soybean. side industrial farming nations that
with nondescript, toxic, low quality, are not under sanctions.
industrially produced agricultural Many Zimbabweans have always
commodities from China, America, assumed that the collapse in agri- Death Of Zimbabwean Farming.
South Africa, EU and Brazil. cultural output in the country was 18yrs later under sanctions, and
solely because of white commercial global agriculture has changed, as it
Zimbabwe has lost its brand status, farmers leaving the land after land has become more favorable to na-
competitive advantage and monop- reform. tions with scale, capital, chemicals
oly to exclusive markets that bought Not realizing that the rising cost and a knack for shortcuts.
our organic produce at a premium. of farming due to the decimation It’s a global market in which a
of heirloom seeds and the prolif- small country like Zimbabwe has
When people say Zimbabwe was eration of high input hybrids that no capacity to compete on volume

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