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Labour crisis on farms
Caiphas Chimhete, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
Janaury 15, 2006

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/read.php?path=./news/2006/January/Sunday15/&st_id=595

A CRITICAL shortage of farm labour could seriously undermine prospects of a bumper harvest this season despite the good rains that have fallen, agriculture experts have warned.

They said this has been further exacerbated by the scarcity of farming inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fuel.

Zimbabwe Farmer's Union (ZFU) executive director, Dzarira Kwenda, attributed the shortage of labour to increased arable area created by the land reform programme, lack of incentives in the sector and resistance by workers to work for black commercial farmers.

The government's chaotic land reform programme, which started with invasions of white-owned commercial farms in 2000, displaced more than 350 farm workers.

"Some of the farm workers are going into illegal gold panning or into towns where there are better opportunities. However, others got A1 land under the land reform programme and they are now farmers themselves," Kwenda said.

About 6 000 former white commercial farms were subdivided and allocated to 140 000 small-scale farmers, some of whom were former farm workers.

Although some of the resettled farmers were allocated productive land, they are failing to utilise it and are cutting down trees on the farms for sale as firewood, which can be seen along major roads.

General Agricultural and Plantation Workers' Union of Zimbabwe (Gapwuz) secretary general, Getrude Hambira, attributed the current labour shortage to poor wages. She also said that most of the new farmers cannot afford to give their workers subsidised food as had became the norm with the former farm owners.

"The workers are leaving but others are still on the farms but are doing other things which give them more money," said Hambira, whose organisation has a membership of about 50 000 farm workers.

Presently, the stipulated monthly salary for commercial farm worker is set at $1.1 million but Hambira said they want it increased to about $3 million a month.

However, according to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) a family of six now requires about $16.7 million to live a normal life.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union (ZCFU) grains and cereal chairman, Denford Chimbwanda, attributed the current shortage of labour to low prices of commodities that are gazetted by government. He said with a tonne of maize gazetted at $2.6 million, it would not be sustainable for a farmer to pay good wages.

Chimbwanda said apart from gazetting low prices, the government also delays in announcing the prices of commodities making it difficult to plan for the future, even hiring labour.

"If we hire workers and pay them well without considering the price of our commodities we will fail to cover labour costs and run a loss," he said.

Kwenda, who urged AgriBank to release loans to farmers in time to enable farmers to pay their workers, also shared Chimbwanda's concerns.

"Casual labour is paid weekly, if you fail to pay in time, the workers will go to the next farm, so what we need is early disbursement of funds from the bank," said Kwenda, who could not estimate decline that would be caused by the labour crisis.

Zimbabwe requires 1.8 million tones of maize for annual consumption and another 500 000 tonnes of strategic reserves.

Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) president, Doug Taylor-Freeme, also confirmed there was general shortage of labour on the commercial farms. He said the horticultural sector was the most affected because it is labour-intensive.

Taylor-Freeme said: "Some workers moved into towns where there are better opportunities. Coupled with the shortage of seed, fuel and fertilizer, the labour crisis has reduced the time available for tillage and this could have a negative impact on national output."

He said the actual impact of labour shortage in the farms would only be quantifiable when planting ends.

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