urged retrenched miners on the Copperbelt to venture into agriculture which he said was one of the most profitable and sustainable businesses in the country.He was speaking at the Kitwe show grounds earlier today.
Dr. Chituwo said retrenched miners should not despair but take life’s challenges head on by engaging in small and large scale farming.
He further disclosed that some mining companies have requested his ministry to provide land where former miners could grow crops.
Dr. Chituwo said the ministry of Agriculture has since started exploring some pieces of land and advised former miners to take advantage of this in order to mitigate the effects of the global economic recession.
Dr.Chituwo also said the country had the capacity to produce different types of crops on a larger scale.
He said the country could use the global recession to its benefits by engaging in commercial production of crops such as cassava, groundnuts and beans.
He added that there was need to encourage mass production of certain crops that grow well in certain parts of the country, citing rice and groundnuts in Western and Eastern provinces respectively.
He further said there was need to identify crops with certain areas and regions of the country in order to effectively improve in the production of those particular crops.
What kind of nonsense is this? Urging people to go ku ma farms ka.This government has totally failed the Zambian people.They cant creat jobs hence telling people who lost jobs to start farming.Ufu what a joke.Are all Zambians going to be farmers now? And such kind of talks doesnt even give hope to the reatrenched people.Zambia,guys thats why am urging all of you guys including Akapondo to come mu bwato.
One thing about miners & may be most Zambians is that we want to do things as individuals. What I mean is that we’ll obviously see some of the miners go to buy things like toyota corollas which they’ll saturate on the roads as taxi’s & fail to tick as there’ll be too many taxis chasing too few customers. Who will book a taxi when the ones who used to book pa wanu are all operating taxis? This is the right time where they can win GRZ sympathy if at least groups fifty with different specialities could team up with part of their benefits and obtain a loan for machinery then venture into say emerald mining, It is only recently when GRZ was crying that those that have mines have failed to put good use of them. And I suppose it is those with no knowlegde on mining whom he was refering to.
Diversification?
Chituwo!! Go back to the land yourself. U dont have to force people to do so when they are not willing. Farming is all about a personal interest.
are you going
I think there is nothing wrong with what Chituwo is suggesting. I think farming is a good option. Has anyone looked at how prosperous the Zimbabwe economy was before the Mugabe debacle. 60% of all foreign exchange earnings where accounted for with farming. And what is happening today, people are fighting over farms.
Here is Dr. Chituwo suggesting farming for laid off miners and some bloggers like Chewe the virgin are calling him names. The fact still remains that the govt has got no control over the price of copper, the price is determined by market forces and if it slumps, job losses occur. This fact is hard to accept but it is reality. [tbc
cont…
Farming is a good option as people who are growing crops have got to some degree control over what they grow. If a farmer feels the price of maize is too low, they can grow maybe wheat or Cassava or maybe chillies. Sure some crops like Tobacco, Tea, etc require certain pervasive knowledge in the farming sector but other crops can be done with skills gotten whilst growing up.
We experienced a bumper harvest this year and 80% of that was accounted for by small scale farmers.
I would like to ask this question, is it better to wait jobless for the price of copper to rise so you can have a job again, or is it much better to grow some crops so as to earn a steady income. Land is plenty in Zambia. If you don’t want to farm, we’ll give the farms to foreign investors.
Free-Market-Economist. I beg to differ with you about farming in Zim as having been the driver for that country’s economy. What has been at play in Zimbabwe is manufacturing. Where Zambians being humilitated for buying maize or cotton in Zim when that country’s economy was florishing? Ney. You could even see that Vic falls town used to be an oasis for Livingstone residents because of the cheap and variety of goods that were being produced in Zim then. And in fact how many black Zims tbenefited out of farms? You can even see that they do not know what to do with farms now that they have grabed them from those that had the know-how.because they never had an experience in that field at all. Small scale farming will just add depression to the poor former miners because it doesnt pay in Zed.
” Has anyone looked at how prosperous the Zimbabwe economy was before the Mugabe debacle. 60% of all foreign exchange earnings where accounted for with farming. And what is happening today, people are fighting over farms. ”
You ‘free market’ friends destroyed the country twice, the last time because they wanted their estates back. ‘The Mugabe debacle’? Is this the same Robert Mugabe who was knighted by Queen Elisabeth in 1994?
Let’s not be selective with the facts, and fall for western (US/UK/BBC) propaganda.
Let’s also not forget that the MDC is financed from Washington DC (upto $26 million per year, as mentioned in ZDERA) and that LonRho set up a $100 million fund called LonZim, to buy up the assets the MDC was going to privatise – as good freemarketeers.
I mean to say – “Your free market friends”. From 1991 to 1996, the IMF turned back the gains in healthcare and education, by demanding (as they do in every country they ‘advise’) to reduce government spending on education and healthcare.
Then, in 2001, the freemarketeers from the MDC helped draft the sanctions (the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001) that targeted the national currency for destruction, by forcing the government to operate on a cash only basis. Ironically, today the MDC find that they themselves cannot govern under sanctions, and asked for them to be lifted. (ZDERA to date has not be recalled.)
You can check it online.
Google: zimbabwe democracy economic recovery act 2001 govtrack
Then read sections 4C and 3 (Definitions).
Section 4C reads:
(c) MULTILATERAL FINANCING RESTRICTION- … the Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against–
(1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or
(2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.
These are the sanctions that brought down the Zimbabwean currency, and which the MDC swore high and low didn’t exist. They would only talk about ‘travel restrictions’, and then blamed everything that happened on ‘Mugabe’s mismanagement’ and land reform.
So that is who the MDC is.
This also shows the danger of depending on foreign sources of funding, and foreign markets for your products.
This makes the economy extremely vulneral to ‘external shocks’ as economists like to call it, like trade wars, sanctions, terrorist attacks like 9/11, rising fuel prices, competition from transnational corporations, etc.
The key to true economic independence and development is the development of internal markets through capacity building (universal education and healthcare, a minimum school leaving age), infrastructure (to unlock every part of the country for commerce), and most of all, to create demand by raising incomes (works projects, a minimum wage, unionisation).
Free Trade is just a neocolonial tool to continue poverty and exploitation.
i concur with chituwo and free market economist…atleast he has given an option..we cant keep looking to govt to provide jobs foe everyone..why cant we ask for empowerment and be entrepreneurs?..this is the way to go ….if anybody can make it in zed..its a large scale farmer and this idea should be fully backed up and exploited in a positive way to boost the economy
Miss Daisy,
This neoliberal ‘free market’ government that officially doesn’t believe in government or that ‘government is the problem’, needs a 180 degree change in ideological direction.
They need to take on board some of the ‘socialist’ central planning, that allows the country to have a real economic policy – one that does not merely consist of chasing after foreign investors and allowing them to walk away with the profits, nor put limits on them on how they can treat labour and the environment.
What is needed is a comprehensive agrarian reform plan, not merely telling unemployed miners to go and find a plot and become subsistence farmers.
The government needs to invest and build rural infrastructure, storage facilities, education, tractorisation an mechanisation.
It needs to sort out land rights, not in favour of foreign investors, but in favour of local subsistence farmers who want to become small scale commercial farmers.
Right now, land rights in rural areas is a mess. People have a traditional right to landuse (usufruct) handed out by chiefs, that is (like under colonialism) not recognized through title deeds or similar strong contracts, which is why you always read about ‘squatters’ being evicted to make way for foreign investors. Who can invest in their land under those conditions? Who would use their savings to put in irrigation or soil improvement practices, when it can be taken away without recourse?