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Agricultural chaos and food insecurity
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2006-15
Monday April 10th 2006 - Sunday April 16th 2006

THIS week the government media continued to evade tackling the root causes of Zimbabwe’s agricultural decline in the 95 stories they devoted to the subject, of which 29 were in the official Press and 66 on ZBH.

This was reflected in the way they subordinated open discussions on the ills blighting the sector to mundane official statements that projected government as committed to addressing the problems. In fact, almost half of the stories ZBH carried on the topic were passive regurgitations of statements made by Vice President Joice Mujuru during her over publicized national tours.

As a result, government media’s audiences remained uncertain on the extent of the troubles haunting farming, the crop prospects for this season and whether the yields would be enough to see the country through to the next agricultural season.

ZBH’s evening bulletins (11/4) captured this uncritical approach.

The broadcaster merely celebrated the government’s announcement that it would inject eight million litres of diesel into this season’s wheat farming without subjecting the matter to scrutiny. For instance, it would not inquire whether the fuel was enough to sustain the sector or question the proposed bureaucratic distribution mechanism, which involves district administrators, police, war veterans, farmers’ organisations, ZANU PF and government officials.

Neither would it wonder if the authorities had the resources to import the commodity amid crippling forex shortages or discuss the negative economic effects of government’s plans to sell the fuel to farmers at a heavily subsidized price of $11,000 per litre when the current market rate ranges between $185,000 and $200,000.

Rather, it merely reported "stakeholders" advising against the abuse of fuel.

Earlier, in a bid to paint a rosy picture of the ailing agricultural sector, ZBH (10/4, 6pm & 8pm) claimed that the dairy farming, on the decline since the inception of land invasions, was on a "recovery path". This was despite the fact that farmers and experts were quoted in the same bulletins belying this notion, complaining about lack of funding, expertise and shortage of pastures, which the "new farmers" had converted into crop fields.

Similarly, The Sunday Mail (16/4) would not provide coherent reasons behind the sharp decline in the dairy herd from a peak of 104 483 cows in 1994 to just 35 000 last year, which resulted in milk production plummeting from 250 million litres to 97 million litres.

It only emphasised that Dairibord Zimbabwe Holdings Limited would be importing 450 dairy cows from South Africa in a development that will considerably "boost milk production in the country". How this modest number of cows would improve the country’s milk shortages, especially in a comparatively enlarged market than that of the 1990s remained unsaid.

The government Press’ determination to hide the truth also saw The Herald (10/4) continue to hail the new maize producer price, presenting it as the sole answer to numerous operational problems facing maize production.

It (13/4) then tried to reinforce this projection when it reported Grain Marketing Board boss Samuel Muvuti saying farmers had already started delivering maize to the board’s depots "in response to" the new price.

However, Muvuti gave no figures to substantiate his claims and neither was he challenged to do so. The paper only passively quoted him as saying the deliveries had started "trickling in" and were expected to reach a "peak" next mid-month.

The Sunday Mail would also not explain how predictions that the country would harvest 127 000 tonnes of cotton was arrived at. It only quoted a cotton industry official simplistically arguing that the target would be achieved "given the better rainfall" for all the cotton-growing areas in the country. There was no investigation on the adverse effects of the perpetual and severe shortages of inputs that have been dogging the agricultural sector in the past couple of years.

In fact, besides simply portraying the authorities as "committed to increasing agricultural production to achieve food security…and stop" dependence on the international community (The Herald 11/4), the government papers also passively reported the authorities discouraging independent assessments of agricultural production in the country.

For example, The Herald and Chronicle (12/4) seemed to show no professional curiosity whatsoever about Agriculture Minister Joseph Made’s warning against multilateral agencies who conducted "back door crop assessment exercises" and issued "speculative figures projecting crop harvests". Neither would they ponder the real reasons behind his advice to rural communities and Agricultural Research and Extension Services officials not to give information to these agencies if indeed "the agricultural season this year was better when compared to last year".

The government media’s over dependence on official opinion to interpret problems besetting farming is shown in Figs 1 and 2.

Fig. 1 Voice distribution in government papers

Fig. 2 Voice distribution on ZBH

Except for the Mirror stable, whose reports also largely lacked critical analysis, the rest of the private media’s coverage of problems in the agricultural sector was incisive.

They categorically interpreted them as emanating from government’s chaotic land reforms, its skewed agricultural policies and the erratic supply of inputs.

For instance, The Financial Gazette (13/4), which reported on the pending crop assessment next month by the multilateral Zimbabwe Vulnerability Food Assessment, contested that government was becoming increasingly "jittery" over the outcome of the crop assessments following preliminary findings of the US Department of Agriculture (USAD) that indicated "another staple grain deficit this year despite above average rains".

The Standard (16/4) also reported Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) noting that though the projected harvest was better than last year’s, it was "still below the 1990s average". The organisation also revealed that the food situation had "deteriorated significantly with rural households surviving on wild foods".

To make matters worse, the Gazette revealed that despite such a gloomy picture, some international food relief organisations were discontinuing their humanitarian assistance in the country due to financial constraints. It reported the World Food Programme (WFP) as winding up some of its feeding programmes at the end of this month because it was US$22,2 million short of the US$151 million it needed to fund its operations until June.

Earlier, The Zimbabwe Independent (13/4) depicted the extent of Zimbabwe’s seemingly untenable food situation in two stories that unmasked more "waves of farm takeovers" and "looting" of farm equipment by senior government officials and ruling party supporters.

The private radio stations carried similar issues in the three stories they featured on the subject.

The private media’s critical examination of problems bedevilling agriculture and their attempts to balance official views with alternative ones was reflected by the sourcing pattern of the private Press. See Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in private papers

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