September 5, 2013

 

Zimbabwe's farmers get few gains from local beef industry

 

 

In the wake of the government's fast-track land redistribution programme, smallholder farmers have become the main suppliers of Zimbabwe's beef industry.

 

According to Eddie Cross, a commercial farmer and agricultural researcher, over three million of the estimated five million cattle that comprise the national herd are owned by smallholder farmers, and their animals account for about 75% of the local beef industry. However, most of the profits generated by the industry are benefiting traders and abattoirs rather than the farmers, who are able to maintain only small herds, selling off one or two animals at a time when needed.

 

"The farmers don't sell for profit, but it is their respective sales, when combined, that explain the relative stability of the [beef] industry," said Cross.

 

Wonder Chabikwa, president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union (ZCFU), said that cattle dealers, abattoirs and butcheries were the main beneficiaries of the local beef industry.

 

"In reality, it is not the smallholder farmers who come out with obvious gains, but those to whom the cattle are sold. Some of these people have actually made fortunes by regularly buying from those that want to sell, and the sources of cattle are plenty and steady considering that individual farmers feel the need to sell at different times," Chabikwa said.

 

He added that traders who visit communal areas to buy cattle offered low prices, short-changing farmers.

 

Some smallholder farmers sell their cattle directly to abattoirs, while others take their animals to auctions that are held periodically, but irregularly, around the country. The majority of farmers, however, sell to traders at lower prices than they would get from auction houses or abattoirs, to avoid the cost and inconvenience of transporting their cattle.

 

Commercial farmers who have emerged since 2000 have struggled to make meaningful contributions to the beef industry, due to a lack of capital and appropriate infrastructure, said Cross, who is a member of the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party. Most gained their ranches from land carved out of formerly white-owned farms taken over by the government during the land redistribution programme. Their lack of title deeds makes it difficult to secure bank loans and, according to Cross, many are also "absentee farmers" whose primary interest and expertise is not cattle ranching.

 

According to Cross, smallholder farmers are also constrained by a lack of grazing land and the large numbers of animals they lose to natural causes such as drought and old age.

 

Zimbabwe's export market collapsed in the wake of the land redistribution programme and the resurgence of foot-and-mouth disease. Although outbreaks of the disease are now small and infrequent, owing to the widespread use of vaccines, bans on exports to the EU have not been lifted, and lack of growth in the commercial cattle farming sector have led the country to import beef from Botswana and South Africa.

 

Innocent Makwiramiti, an economist and former chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, said that the recovery of the cattle industry would require extensive training programmes for farmers, re-joining some of the divided farms to form cattle farming cooperatives and strengthening veterinary services to effectively combat diseases.