In 1993 a group of commercial and smallholder farmers formed the Zimbabwe Coffee Mill (ZCM). By then, Zimbabwe was exporting 95 percent of its raw coffee – but the land reform marked the demise of the sector as inexperienced farmers were given coffee farms despite the fact that the crop requires great skill.
The government also promoted maize and wheat production, leading to the destruction of coffee trees as farmers prepared to farm the targeted crops.
“The big decline was as a result of the new (resettled) farmers (A1 and A2) – they didn’t have expertise, so they didn’t continue with coffee farming because one has to be capacitated with coffee farming skills. To make matters worse government gave funding through Agri Bank to short term crops at the expense of plantation crops,” said ZCM general manager Josphat Rushinga.
“At the peak of the land reform, we were very vocal. For the coffee farms that were being taken over, we wanted government to consider experienced farmers especially the likes of those smallholder farmers in Honde Valley and Vumba. But government had their own ways and direction on land reform,” he lamented.
“Coffee production declined just because we don’t have people who know how to grow coffee. I can actually count farmers who know how to grow coffee. Isn’t this an embarrassment for a nation like Zimbabwe with a high literacy rate to have few farmers who know how to grow coffee?” said Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries national vice president Henry Nemaire.
The sector is left with six commercial farmers out of the 120 and 800 smallholders – down from 2,000 – leading to a sharp decline of cultivated area from 80,000 hectares down to 600 hectares.
Production fell from a peak of 14,664 tonnes in 1990 to its lowest output of 206MT in 2011, with 2014/15 season projections pegged at 510MT. it takes three years to grow coffee trees and four years to harvest. Rushinga said it costs $10,000 to grow a hectare of coffee.
In 2010 up to 2012, USAID and FAO funded by the European Union gave assistance to 1,000 communal farmers in the form of financial and technical skills. Commercial farmers under A1 and A2 farms were deliberately left out of the scheme as they were assumed to be beneficiaries of the internationally condemned land grab.
Post published in: Agriculture