The Zimbabwean tobacco industry is being hard hit by the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which has resulted in President Emmerson Mnangagwa closing the country’s borders and banning gatherings of more than 50 people, among other measures.

As Africa’s largest producer, it was estimated that 14% of tobacco grown in Zimbabwe was sold on the country’s three auction floors in Harare.

This season, about 140 000 farmers produced the crop. Auction floors became increasingly busy from March when the marketing season traditionally began. This lasted until August when the marketing season ended.

Immediate past chairperson of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board and local tobacco farmer, Monica Chinamasa, however, expressed concern that the thousands of people who would throng to auction floors when the selling season began on 20 April, could be at risk of COVID-19 infection.

She therefore suggested that the start of the trading period be delayed by three months.

“I have been speaking to colleagues and we all agree [not to] rush into opening the floors, but wait until the situation is clearer. Getting so many people at one place at the same time can be dangerous in light of COVID-19.”

Chief executive officer of the board, Andrew Matibiri, acknowledged the threat of COVID-19 to normal tobacco auctioning, but denied that the delay in the start of the season this year was the result of fears about the pandemic.

He said that the delay was rather caused by late rainfall that negatively affected land preparation, planting and the growth of the crop.

“Yes, auction floors attract many farmers, but we are working on a raft of measures [to safeguard auction-goers]. However, we will abide by whatever regulations the government has already announced or will announce. But I can say the crop is doing well. Small-scale farmers are reaping and curing it.

“The quality will be good, but total output will be lower than last year due to the late rain received [across] the country.”

According to the board, Zimbabwe produced a record 256 million kilograms of tobacco last season at an average of US$2,03/kg (about R34/kg).

“Considering the (COVID-19) threat, I don’t see a problem if the selling season is delayed by three months from now. If tobacco is properly cured, baled and stored, a farmer can have it for up to three months. We can do that now so that we see how the pandemic pans out,” Chinamasa said.

Chinhoyi University of Technology, a university in Mashonaland West, Zimbabwe, recently took its national artificial insemination (AI) project for cattle countrywide.

The initiative, which was first rolled out regionally in February after three years of educating local livestock producers on the importance of AI, aims to help local cattle farmers improve the size and genetics of their herds, while generating profit through the exporting of semen straws.

This was according to Fungai Chatiza, director of the breeding programme at the university.

The project involves farmers paying around Z$400 (about R355) per cow, which covers the cost of the Estrumate (luteolytic agent) injections and the artificial insemination. They can also choose semen from a number of breeds, including Brahman, Bonsmara, Mashona and Charbray.

Besides the individual benefits of artificial insemination, AI also had the ability to improve the national calving rate, which was currently between 44% and 45%, according to the government, he said.

Moreover, at full capacity, the initiative could produce an estimated seven million semen straws every year, which was much higher than the 1,5 million that Zimbabwe needed on an annual basis.

This, Chatiza said, provided an export opportunity, with the government estimating that the initiative could generate around US$140 million/year (R2,2 billion).

“There are some national and international guidelines that we are still looking into, [before we can] export. However, we have so far had interest from Namibia and Ghana,” he said.

The Zimbabwean government estimated that the country had about 5,58 million head of cattle, 55% of which were female animals. The national herd was dominated by local breeds, which tended to be smaller in size, but showed greater tolerance to drought.

The Zimbabwean government has announced a legal framework to restore ownership rights to individuals and companies that lost farms over the past 20 years, in terms of the Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements.

A body representing these property owners, however, expressed dissatisfaction about what it said was the selective approach by authorities to paying compensation.

This followed the recent publishing of a statutory instrument in the Zimbabwean Government Gazette under which the government sought to restore or offer alternative land to individuals and companies whose properties were “protected under bilateral investment protection and promotion agreements when it was acquired since 2000”.

In terms of the statutory instrument, “indigenous” farmers whose land was also taken for resettlement stand a chance to be paid full compensation, regain their farms or get alternative land.

However, Ben Gilpin, director of the country’s Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU), told Farmer’s Weekly that the government needed to find a way to pay compensation to all categories of farmers who lost their properties instead of being selective.

“We are yet to get a full legal opinion, but even before then it seems the statutory instrument will be challenged in terms of its legality,” he said.

“It arises out of the work of the land commission, which does not have legal status. Also, this latest proposal requires much more than a statutory instrument. They can go further to come up with an act of parliament for the proposal to be adequate.”

The government estimated that 197 out of 258 properties amounting to a combined 977 000ha were acquired over the past 20 years. Zimbabwe has such agreements with Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Malaysia, and Switzerland.

In terms of the agreements, the government was bound to pay full compensation, in foreign currency, for land and improvements to these farmers.

The government had failed to do so, which forced a group of 40 Dutch farmers to take the matter to the International Court for the Settlement of International Investment Disputes, where they won a US$25 million (about R405 million) settlement in April 2009.

Gilpin said more clarity was, however, needed on the question of “indigenous” farmers whose land ownership rights the new policy sought to restore.

“The statutory instrument seeks to address the rights of two categories of farmers, but our concern is that those who bought farms after independence in 1980 with the full consent of the government are being excluded. This approach is not in line with international best practices.”

The past several years’ drought in Namibia has had a devastating impact on the country’s hunting industry, and in some areas hunting quotas had been cut between 70% and 80%. This was according to Tanya Dahl, CEO of the Namibia Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA).

She said communal conservancies had been particularly negatively affected. Hunting quotas, issued by the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism, provided a valuable source of income for these areas.

“Game numbers nevertheless declined sharply all over Namibia since no part of the country was spared the dearth.

“Landowners tried to mitigate the effect of the drought by harvesting game for the game meat market before the animals became too emaciated,” she added.

Farmers also provided feed to game as long as possible in an effort to keep as many as possible alive. Dahl said the importance of farming indigenous, adapted game species became abundantly clear during the drought.

Imported species and so-called colour variants suffered tremendously during the drought. This meant that farmers whose financial situation had already been compromised had to incur even more costs to keep these animals.

An added challenge was to keep animals in fenced-off areas fed and watered. Dahl said it was vital that migration corridors were provided for local species to move between different areas in their quest to find grazing.

According to her, all game species suffered due to the drought, even elephants and hippos. However, the country’s warthogs were the worst affected, as they were the first to succumb to lean times, but they usually were the first to recuperate in times of plenty.

“It might be surprising to know that the humble warthog was the most sought-after species by local as well as international hunters. Warthog meat is considered a delicacy in our country,” Dahl added.

She urged outfitters to approach hunting with care this year and emphasised the fact that older animals past breeding age should be earmarked for culling. Younger animals needed to be conserved at all cost to safeguard core herds and their progeny for the future.

For the first time in 20 years, the producer prices of small grains in Zimbabwe have been set higher than that of maize as a way of encouraging the growing of these crops.

This was according to a recent statement by information minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, who was speaking at a media conference in Harare.

However, farmers’ unions have reacted with caution to the price review, saying that while they welcomed the move, it was only an interim measure as a new maize price would be announced after the next harvest had been completed in April.

It was expected that high inflation rates would erode the payments received by farmers.

“The maize floor producer price [has been] reviewed to encourage deliveries to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and for the replenishment of the strategic grain reserve,” Mutsvangwa said.

For decades, going back to pre-colonial times, the producer price paid by the GMB for small grains, among them millet and sorghum, was lower than that of maize, but in 2000, the government brought them on par, with small grains now paying better.

Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union director, Paul Zakariya, said the new prices were good, but amid economic instability, they would soon count for less.

“In this environment, the value of the new producer prices will be quickly eroded. The key issue is for the government to work to stabilise the economy,” he said.

Mutsvangwa said Cabinet had drawn up a maize, wheat and soya bean production recovery plan, which was part of a broader strategy that aimed to increase agricultural production to US$8 billion (about R124 billion) by 2023.

The plan would be based on six elements: identifying about 5 000 capable farmers to receive support for production; requiring agro-processors to buy at least 40% of their raw materials through contract farming; increasing the number of beneficiaries of free government inputs from about one million farmers to 1,6 million; growing maize under irrigation in the drier south-east and north-west lowveld; and provision of more irrigation and extension services to farmers.

“The maize, wheat and soya bean recovery plan, if meticulously implemented has the potential to reverse the dependence on imports for these crops, as well as to mitigate the financial burden on treasury,” said Mutsvangwa.

The decision by the Zimbabwean government to lift the ban on genetically modified (GM)
maize imports to increase supplies after a poor local harvest season, could benefit South African farmers.

Corné Louw, senior economist at Grain SA, said that because approximately 85% of maize production in South Africa consisted of GM maize, it would now be far easier to export maize to Zimbabwe.

According to Luan van der Walt, also an economist at Grain SA, under normal production conditions, South Africa produced enough maize to export to Zimbabwe, but the latter had never imported significant volumes from South Africa.

The latest data from the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS) indicated that South Africa exported just less than 2,5 million tons of maize in the 2018/2019 season.

Wandile Sihlobo, head of economic and agribusiness intelligence at Agbiz, said that Zimbabwe had, for years, maintained a ban on the importation and growing of GM maize to protect the country’s non-GM maize producers.

“Zimbabwe has [now] lifted the ban on GM maize imports as the country seeks to improve local supplies following yet another poor harvest season.”

He said that the country’s 2019/2020 maize production season had started on a bad footing due to late rain.

“The plantings were delayed, and so far, the area planted and the expected size of the maize harvest in the 2019/2020 production season remain unclear.”

He added that according to the US Department of Agriculture, maize production in Zimbabwe fell 53% year-on-year in 2018/2019 to 800 000t.

“This was far below the country’s annual maize consumption of between 1,8 million and two million tons. Therefore, the country had to import at least one million tons of maize to meet the local supply requirements.”

According to SAGIS data, Zimbabwe imported 100 000t of maize from Tanzania in 2019, and 79 283t from South Africa between May 2019 and January 2020.

“In the short run, the challenge of food [shortages] in the country could be prolonged to 2021. This means that South Africa might have to factor in Zimbabwe in its maize demand dynamics,” Sihlobo said.

The pangolin is the world’s most trafficked mammal, being sought after for its scales for the manufacture of traditional medicine, particularly in China. This was according to Prof Ray Jansen, chairperson of the African Pangolin Working Group.

“However, it has emerged that there is a strong likelihood that the [recent] outbreak of the [novel] coronavirus could be linked to the consumption of pangolin body parts. It seems as if the virus originated from bats, but has mutated [to infect] a species of Asian pangolins,” he said.

As a result of the possible linkage between pangolins and the novel coronavirus, China’s government has banned the trade of all wild animals, including indigenous Asian species of the pangolin. Jansen said that this could markedly benefit the conservation of pangolins.

Pangolins were under severe threat in Africa, particularly Central Africa and West Africa, Jansen said. However, he added that it was difficult to measure the impact of pangolin smuggling in South Africa due to the animal’s secretive behaviour.

He also said that the pangolin’s nocturnal nature made it impossible to accurately count the population.

Over the past year, 36 cases of pangolin poaching were investigated in South Africa, while 43 cases were investigated in 2018.

Jansen said the African Pangolin Working Group was working in close co-operation with the stock theft units of the South African Police Service.

“Humans are largely to blame for the spread of diseases such as coronavirus, Ebola and SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome]. These diseases can, for the most part, be ascribed to the consumption of bush meat,” he said.

According to the African Pangolin Working Group’s website, there were eight species of pangolins worldwide, of which four occurred in Asia, and four in Africa. Together, these species comprised the Pholidota order.

Pangolins are unique, as they are the only mammals whose bodies are covered in scales rather than fur. These scales are composed of keratin, although some species also have a hard layer of calcareous material underneath the keratin.

The belly, underside of the head and inside of the limbs are not covered with scales. All pangolins have long, strong claws on their front limbs, which are used for digging and climbing.

Pangolins are predominantly solitary and nocturnal, but become active earlier in winter, while some may become entirely diurnal during winter.

Zimbabwe is finalising arrangements to import 230 Large White Landrace and Duroc pigs from South Africa as breeding stock, as part of a US$45 million (about R630 million) EU-funded project to improve the country’s livestock value chain.

A new report on cannabis production and trade is forecasting an increase in medical cannabis production this year, but warns that the existing small markets could leave growers with unsold stocks.

Despite reports of good rainfall in the north-eastern parts of Namibia, the drought in that country is still continuing.