The agricultural sector faces a funding challenge. Farmers say they need money for medium- and long-term farming requirements, but most domestic financing is only available for short-term needs like buying seeds and fertilizer.
The government plans to mobilize ZiG22 billion (US$1.6 billion) in collaboration with the private sector to improve crop production and guarantee food security for households and the country.
This is in keeping with plans for the summer cropping program for 2024–2025, which projects the La-Nina phenomenon, which is typically linked to normal to above-average rainfall, for that year’s rainfall season.
In the 2024 Mid-Term Budget, Minister of Finance, Economic Development, and Investment Promotion Professor Mthuli Ncube stated that the funds will help with the boost of grains, oil seeds, and pulses with a 4,5 million tonne target.
“It is anticipated that the private sector will raise US$960 million, and the government will raise US$640 million to fund the Presidential Input Scheme and guaranteed agriculture programs through ARDA, AFC, and CBZ facilities,” the official stated.
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According to Minister Ncube, 1,8 million disadvantaged households are to get agricultural inputs from the government and development partners in order to produce grain, cotton, oil seeds, pulses, and animals.
Ninety thousand hectares are set aside for the cultivation of irrigated maize, with farmers participating in joint venture programs overseen by ARDA, contract farming in the private sector, and self-financed farming.
“The government will deepen agricultural production and marketing reforms to increase investment and crowd in the private sector and drive sustainable transformation of the sector,” the Finance Minister declared.
Director of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU), Mr. Paul Zacharia, stated in an interview that there are three ways that agriculture needs to get funding.
The first, he explained, was working capital, which lasts for 12 to 24 months; the others are medium-term and long-term financing, which lasts for five to 10 years and is required for items like tractors, implements, and irrigation equipment; and the last one, which finances infrastructure to support production activities.
“You need dams on the farm to open up new fields, irrigation infrastructure, roads, packing and sorting facilities, and all that needs finance.
“All that is funding that goes beyond 15 to 20 years. So, when we are talking about financing agriculture, we are not just talking about seeds, but we are talking even about deeper things.
“Therefore, if what the Finance Minister is saying comes through in those three forms, farmers will become more solid,” he said.
Mr. Zacharia said preparations for the upcoming season are ongoing, and when the rains come, every farmer knows he needs to make sure that he is prepared.
Therefore, one’s level of preparedness is also a function of their available resources. Planning for 50 acres is what you do if you have enough; if not, you plan for more, but that depends on the initial funding,” the speaker stated.
According to Mr. Zacharia, banks do not currently provide the proper kind of funding for agriculture, with the exception of institutions that assist short-term farming and can pay for expenses like seed and fertilizer but occasionally do not include labor.
According to him, the majority of contract finance arrangements were centered around inputs.
“We see that production gets depressed sometimes because the farmer ends up looking around for finances to do other things like maintenance or equipment hiring,” Mr. Zacharia added.
Regarding irrigation development, Minister Ncube stated that the government was committed to climate-proofing agriculture and guaranteeing food security for households and the country. This was achieved by ensuring year-round cropping, regardless of seasonal rainfall patterns, and by utilizing transformative support programs from both the public and private sectors.
He said that in order to reach the national goal of increasing functional irrigable land to 496 000 hectares by 2025, the government worked to ensure that the nation’s irrigation potential was fully realized through development and rehabilitation through the National Accelerated Irrigation Rehabilitation and Development Programme.
“A total of ZiG19,6 million was expended towards irrigation development during the first half of the year, with a target to achieve 6 864 hectares by December 2024,” Minister Ncube stated in the mid-term review statement, “in support of the above interventions.”
In the future, he said, the government would take advantage of the Irrigation Development Alliance, a framework for risk-sharing between the public, private, and agricultural sectors, to raise more money to create a workable and sustainable irrigation system that boosts productivity and resilience in agriculture.
