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Continuing chaos in the agricultural sector
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-41
Monday October 11^th - Sunday October 17^th 2004

THE government media continued to gloss over government’s poor handling of the agricultural sector, which threaten to derail Zimbabwe’s capacity to produce sufficient food during the on-coming season.

The extent of the government media’s misleading coverage of this crucial issue fully manifested itself in the way they greatly underplayed the palpable signs of government’s chaotic planning as demonstrated by the current critical shortages of farming inputs, chemicals and equipment.

Only the private media sought to tackle the issue and warned of an imminent farming disaster in the coming season despite forecasts of a favourable rain season.

In contrast, the official media restricted themselves to being conduits of government’s propaganda onslaught creating the impression that government was in control of the situation.

These media were hence awash with piecemeal stories that did not go beyond official pronouncements.

For example, the government-controlled newspapers alone carried 13 such public relations stories highlighting many government-sponsored schemes aimed at helping farmers to kick-start their farming activities. However, none of them attempted to interrogate, interpret or reconcile the official information with the reality on the ground.

In fact, the oversimplification of these problems by The Herald (11 and 13 /10), the Chronicle (13/10) ZTV (14/10, 6pm) and Power FM (15/10) created the impression that Zimbabwe’s seed woes had finally been resolved. The Herald (13/10) and the State broadcaster especially papered over the maize seed problem by failing to reconcile the tonnage of seed that seed companies told a Parliament Committee on Lands and Agriculture they would be able to provide to the market with the national requirement of 100 000 tonnes.

Rather, The Herald simplistically cited representatives of the seed companies as having promised to "immediately start importing maize seed … to augment available stock and avert any shortages when the farming season begins in a few weeks time."

But The Financial Gazette and Independent reports on the same event made no illusions about the matter, noting that the tonnage of seed Seed Co and Pannar promised to release on the market, even after the projected imports have been factored in, would still be 40 000 tonnes short of national requirement.

As a result, observed the Independent, "Zimbabwe might not produce even a third of its food requirements in the 2004/5 farming season".

If The Herald (13/10) and ZTV (14/10, 6pm) avoided telling their audiences about the exact position of the seed situation in the country, they were also guilty of suffocating Parliamentary revelations by Seed Co Chairman and ZANU MP for Mudzi, Ray Kaukonde that some senior ruling party officials were holding onto unspecified quantities of maize ahead of the forthcoming season, Studio 7 (13/10), The Daily Mirror (13/10) and The Financial Gazette.

While The Herald merely cited Kaukonde referring to these as "A2 farmers", the private Press on the other hand quoted the Mudzi MP describing them as "respected people, big chefs", adding that they were exporting their seed into the region because of the "unfavourable price" being offered on the local market. He, however, did not name them.

However, the government media continued with its uncritical stance of government’s half-hearted attempts to solve the chaos in the agricultural sector as compared to the private media.

For example, The Financial Gazette contended that "government, which seems to be driven more by short-sighted populist reasons" had done nothing to correct the situation even when stakeholders in the agricultural industry "warned, time without number, about the imminent input shortages several months earlier".

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