By Bernard Bwoni
Maize production is an important component of food
security and livelihood for smallholder farming communities of Zimbabwe. The
majority of smallholder farmers grow maize primarily for subsistence using
conventional farming methods. Prior to
independence the large-scale commercial production was characterised by
high-value crops such as tobacco which accounted for around 51% of the total
large-scale commercial production, intensive use of capital which accounted for
34% of output and 42% of input use communal farms were characterised by more
labour intensive production which accounted for 52% of total production and
minimal use of inputs accounted for only 18%. The smallholder production was
mainly dominated by maize and cattle which together accounted for more than
half of the smallholder agricultural production and this was mainly directed
for home consumption. Although smallholder maize production accounted for 63%
of total maize production it contributed only 40% of the marketed supply.
Large-scale commercial farm maize production accounted for 4% of total maize
production yet it contributed 60% of the marketed supply. This is a very
important point to counter the basket-case baloney. The smallholder black
indigenes fed themselves and their beautiful off-springs from the dust-patches
they were coerced into by the unforgiving settlers.
Large-scale
commercial tobacco accounted for 51% of total agriculture production and
contributed 100% of total marketed tobacco production. This was exclusively an
all white affair. Cattle accounted for 9% total agriculture production in LSC
farms and 26% of total agriculture production in the smallholder farms and
contributed 64% and 36% of total marketed production respectively. Maize
accounted for 1.1% of gross national output and contributed 1.5% towards the
Gross Domestic Product. Tobacco accounted for 5.49 % of gross national economy
and contributed 6.6% towards the GDP. These figures are from the Zimbabwe
National Account from 1991. These figures serve to remind us that cereal
production on the settler farms was far less than on the smallholder agriculture
sector which was manned by the black indigene.
Between 1977-1979 and 1985, cereal production in
Zimbabwe increased by 80%. The production of maize, the country’s principal
cereal staple, more than doubled during this period. Following the 1986
harvests Zimbabwe held 1.8 million metric tonnes of maize in national stocks,
3.5 times the highest level achieved during the 1970s. The largest share of
maize production gains were contributed by smallholder farmers. These farmers
had previously participated only marginally in producing maize for the market.
During the 1970s, between 5000-6000 large-scale commercial farmers delivered
over 90% of the maize sold in the formal sector market. Approximately 750000
smallholder farmers contributed 5% and 8000 small-scale commercial farmers marketed
the remaining 5%. While commercial maize production increased by more than two
thirds between 1980 and 1985, smallholder maize production increased threefold.
From 1985 onwards smallholder farmers started producing over 50% of the country’s
maize and delivering over a third of that production to the Grain Marketing
Board of Zimbabwe (GMB). From the beginning of the 1970s to 1986 Zimbabwe’s
maize production trends are characterised by extreme variability primarily
associated with the incidence of mid-season dry spells and drought, declining
harvests during the middle part of the 1970s, followed by a sharp increase in
production to record high levels and a significantly rising smallholder sector
contribution to national production particularly after the land reform of the
early 1980s. In 1972 national maize production in Zimbabwe was over 2.3 million
metric tonnes and three quarters of this harvested by commercial farmers. While
smallholder farmers planted two thirds of Zimbabwe’s maize area, yields were
only 16% of commercial sector levels. However it is important to emphasise that
smallholder farmers were mostly concentrated in the specially created Native
Reserve areas they had been forced into under the Land Apportionment Act of
1930. The Land Apportionment Act was probably one of the most repressive pieces
of legislation by the colonial government of Rhodesia. It entailed that over
half of all land in Zimbabwe was exclusively reserved for the white settlers.
The settler population only accounted for 2% of the total population. The Land
Apportionment Act of 1930 took away the right of indigenous black people of Zimbabwe
to purchase land anywhere in the country. All indigenous people were moved into
the Native Reserve Areas which were areas considered unsuitable for intensive
agriculture and more than a third of the allocated land was in areas considered
to be unsuitable for any agriculture other than livestock rearing (Rukuni,
2006; Moyo and Chambati, 2013)
Between 1972 and 1979 maize production maize
production suffered a sustained decline as the war of liberation intensified.
Commercial agriculture declined by more than 55% as a result of a 35% decline
in crop area and a 30% decline in yields ( FAO, 2013). Between 1979 and 1984
both commercial and smallholder production first increased sharply to record
levels then declined sharply during the 1982-84 droughts. By 1981, a year after
independence commercial maize area planted had increased by more than 50% while
smallholder maize area cultivated increased by almost 70% and maize yields increased
by almost 50%. By 1986 total smallholder farm maize production increased an
additional 55% above the 1981 levels and rising above the large scale commercial
farm output (FAO, 2013). Smallholder farmers harvested almost 60% of Zimbabwe’s
total maize output while commercial sector maize output continued to decline. During
the 1970s commercial farmers sold 70-75% of the production to the GMB.
The per capita maize production showed signs of
continued decline in the 1990s and this was attributed to significant decline
in yields over the years from 1500kg/hectare in the early 1990s to
500kg/hectare in 2000 (Government of Zimbabwe, 2002). Agricultural productivity
continued to fall in the smallholder sector due to continued pressure on land
and land degradation as a result of years of erosive cultivation, declining
soil fertility as farmers.
In 2000 maize production yield was 1488kg/hectare
declining to 286.7kg/hectare in 2008 due to the effects of the illegal economic
sanctions imposed on the country. From 2009 the sector has shown signs of
recovery and latest figures from 2012 show a yield of 1041.7kg/hectare. Area under
maize cultivation increased from 799430 hectares in 1979 to 1416700 hectares in
2000. In 1979 maize production quantity was 1141916 tonnes and in 2000 had nearly
more than doubled to 2108110 tonnes. Production showed some signs of decline
during that contentious period of the Fast Track Land Reform from 2000 through to 2008 where production was
496000tonnes. However maize production figures have continued to surge and in
2011 it was 1500000.
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