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Agricultural chaos
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-22
Monday May 29^th 2006 – Sunday June 4^th 2006

THE chaos in the agriculture sector continued to manifest itself in the media despite ZBH’s spirited attempts to downplay it. Although the broadcaster carried 58 stories on agricultural difficulties, 33 (57%) of these sought to divert attention from the problems by projecting a rosy picture of winter wheat and potato farming, allegedly spurred by government’s National Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP).

For example, ZBH’s 20 stories on the preparations for winter wheat cropping tended to subordinate problems in the sector to offhand official pronouncements expressing satisfaction with the crop’s preparations. No confirmation of the progress was made.

Nonetheless, the broadcaster unwittingly contradicted this upbeat picture by exposing problems bedeviling the wheat’s planting, such as late disbursement of inputs and power outages. ZTV (1/6,8pm) noted that "most wheat growers countrywide are still lagging behind with planting due to a number of challenges chief among them shortage of tractors".

Notably, the station did not reconcile these problems with government’s claims. In addition, it presented the problems in isolation of their causes. For example, while ZTV (1/6,8pm), Radio Zimbabwe (2/6,6am) reported the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) as having suspended its proposed 1000% raw water tariff increase "to ensure winter wheat farming a success", it did not ask analyst Sheunesu Mupepereki to explain how the move would translate to increased wheat acreage. Instead, the reports merely amplified Mupepereki and other experts’ rhetoric demanding more commitment from farmers without explaining how this was possible in a sector faced with so many problems.

The station also failed to view Zinwa’s sudden about-turn on the tariffs as indicative of the ad hoc manner in which government was managing the sector.

ZBH also carried 13 stories seeking to portray a non-existent interest in large-scale potato-growing. ZTV (29/5,8pm), for example, reported that "potato farming had generated interest ever since government declared it a strategic crop", adding that new farmers were keen to grow Irish potatoes.

However, farmers interviewed in the same bulletin were only reported complaining about the high costs of inputs, especially seed potato and fertiliser, which they said limited extensive investment in potato-growing.

Despite this revelation, the station maintained, "government was giving it a lot of support". But it neither disclosed the type of support nor the reasons for declaring the crop "strategic". ZBH’s sourcing pattern is captured in Fig 1.

Fig. 1 Voice Distribution on ZBH

Studio 7 only carried two stories on agriculture. However, its single report on potato growing was straightforward. The station (30/5) quoted University of Zimbabwe lecturer Arnold Mashingaidze dismissing the venture, saying expanding potato production was difficult because it was expensive to manage. He doubted the capacity of the national irrigation system to sustain it saying, "the crop needs a lot of irrigation and there are problems with irrigation in the country".

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