Dear Family and Friends,
The frost is lying thick on the ground these winter mornings and on
the roadsides the remains of people’s summer maize harvest is
painting a frightening picture of what lies ahead for Zimbabwe in the
months to come. For the last six weeks we’ve watched a patchy, very
lean crop being carried away from people’s self-apportioned,
roadside plots. Where usually you might see eight or ten bags of maize
cobs waiting to be carried away, this year just three or four bags
have been harvested. Others haven’t harvested even a single bag as
their crops were so starved of nutrients that no cobs formed at all.
Sadly, the picture is not much better in many rural farming areas
where small scale, self sufficient farmers have reaped almost nothing
this season.
“Have you got enough to last your family till next year’s
harvest?” I asked one man who said he’d got eight bags of maize
from his rural fields.
“Not even until Christmas,” he said, “and most of my neighbours
are even worse off.”
This man had grown the fourth best crop in his area but there were
dozens of others who hadn’t even harvested enough maize to last
until the end of June this year.
“They are already looking for food,” he told me, saying people
were hoping that food aid would come soon but there was no sign of it
yet.
It’s really sad to have to be witnessing this, fifteen years after
Mr Mugabe’s land reform program, particularly because it’s the
‘ordinary masses’ who are again going to be suffering the most. So
far the government’s response to this season’s disastrous maize
harvest has come in the form of the begging bowl. Yes, that shameful
begging bowl from our fertile lands is being proffered yet again. Vice
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has just appealed to donors for US$300
million to import maize “to cover the deficit and see us through to
the next harvest.” In a country neck deep in corruption we’re
already wondering how much of the 300 million will actually buy maize
and end up in the stomachs of hungry Zimbabweans and how much will end
up in already bulging pockets. Mr Manangagwa said: “While we need 1, 4
million tonnes of maize a year for consumption, our produce for the
2014-15 season has gone down by approximately 49 percent.” That was
another pretty shocking statistic to let slip coming from the country
which until fifteen years ago was a regional maize exporter,
regardless of the vagaries of changing weather patterns.
Sitting on a rock in the sun on a cold winter morning watching a long
crested eagle watching me, I can’t help but think how un-necessary
Zimbabwe’s fifteen years of food imports and hunger have been. As
each year passes revival of our past bountiful harvests and ability to
export food remains a pipe dream. After fifteen years still no one is
secure on the land they grow food on; farm invasions and evictions
continue, property rights are not respected and leases are only secure
as long as the local politician retains favour in the ruling political
party. Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy. 19th June
2015. Copyright © Cathy Buckle. www.cathybuckle.com
<http://www.cathybuckle.com/>
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