Presentation by Mandivamba Rukuni ZIMASSET Awareness Seminar for Members of Parliament

1. Presentation by Mandivamba Rukuni ZIMASSET Awareness Seminar for Members of Parliament Harare International Conference Centre 12-13 March 2014 Framing Zimbabwe’s Land Policy, Food & NutritionSecurity, Agribusiness, Agricultural Competitiveness and Economic Transformation

2. Zimbabwe's biggest nutrition challenge: Children between 6-59 months of age are stunted • Increased risk of dying from infectious diseases (more than one-third) • Associated with reduced school performance equivalent to 2-3 years of schooling • Associated with reduced income earning capacity (22% average; up to 45% has been reported!) • Increased risk of non-communicable diseases in adult life • Stunted girl is more likely to give birth to undernourished baby • Reduced GDP by 2-3% • Stunting is irreversible! Impaired brain and cognitive development Impaired productivity and earnings Poor school performance ZIMBABWE NATIONAL NUTRITION SURVEY – 2010

4. FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY & AGRICULTURAL COMPETITIVENESS IN ZIMBABWE …THE key POLICY questions • Why has Zimbabwe become a nation of Traders not Producers? • How did Agriculture lose its status as Autonomous sector? • Why the de-industrialisation of Zimbabwe leads to demise of Agriculture? • Can global food markets guarantee Zimbabwe’s food security?

5. ADDRESSSING THE DEMISE OF AGRIBUSINESS • Zimbabwe MOST EDUCATED and MOST HARD-WORKING people on continent BUT cannot feed itself!! • No great nation where Government and Business have no common agenda- Learn from the BRICS- • Food is national security • Business sector- grow out of ‘self-pity’, get more organised, this is war • Educational system- we don’t need thinkers who can’t DO; need more “THINKER-DOER” education • Religion- get rich quick syndrome breeding more greed, crooks and criminals

6. THE BACKBONE OF THE ECONOMY • Water, Roads/Rail, Electricity– are the infrastructure backbone of the economy • Agriculture and Agribusiness – are the economic backbone of the economy

7. TRANSITIONS WITH AFRICAN FOOD SYSTEMS AFRICA AVERAGE 40% Urban 50% food consumed by Urban 60% of all marketed food urban WEST AFRICA 50 60 70 EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA 30 50 40

8. 14 OUT OF 29 CZI INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS ARE AGRO-BASED • Beverages • Fruits and veg • Grain Millers • Grocery Manufacturers • Meat Packers • National Bakers • Pharmaceuticals

9. 14 OUT OF 29 CZI INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS ARE AGRO-BASED • Tea Growers • Zimbabwe Sugar Associations • StockfeedsAss • Retailers • Leather and Allied Industries • Timber • Furniture

10. Small farms offer greatest opportunities for growth • It is more strategic and more sustainable to promote and modernize smallholder farming Small Farms Can: • use land more efficiently • produce cheaper and more nutritious foods • increase own incomes and productivity • promote equity, hunger, and poverty reduction AND average farm size will continue to decline due to sustained rural population growth

11. Zimbabwe’s small farm opportunity • A1 land, in my opinion, is where land policy should really open up to a regulated land market • A1 landowners will be the most vibrant and most diverse commercial force in Zimbabwe’s rural areas. • The farmers are already more responsive to market signals than A2 and large scale farmers. • These farmers won’t be stuck inflexibly to a few commodities as with large-scale farmers.

12. Zimbabwe’s small farm opportunity • The A1 farmers will do much more if given a more conducive land rights regime. • These farmers will form the new frontline commercial suppliers of manufacturing sector, • especially raw materials for food, beverage, textile and other manufactured products. • The intermediary business sector is the source of new growth

13. DEFINING THE LAND SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR SUPPORTING ZIMBABWE’S FARMERS THE CHALLENGE • Insecure land rights and poor liquidity in the market has compounded the challenges of farming • The banking sector has limited understanding of smallholder farmers and vice versa • State banks (Agribank) and parastatals have shrunk and that may be the case for some time.

14. Broaden and deepen rural financial services • What is now needed is proper financial intermediation • With dollarization, it is now feasible to increase domestic savings in rural areas • Require minimum bank savings and investment into rural sector

15. The need for a full range of rural finance • Short-term (seasonal) finance for inputs and working capital. • Medium-term finance 2-5 years (for machinery, irrigation infrastructure, etc.) • Long-term finance 6-25 years (for land acquisition, dams, etc.)

16. CHALLENGES IN RESTORING MANUFACTURING • Decline in supply of raw materials both local and imported. • Locally sourced raw material supply declining • The price of sourcing raw materials has also increased significantly

17. Skill requirements: past 40 years

18. Skill requirements: next 40 years

19. The need for a land bank • With the provision of a Land Commission in the new Constitution it would be strategic for the Commission embarks on establishing a Land Bank as well as a Land Acquisition Compensation Fund. • The two have to be completely independent but strategically, the success of one depends on the other. • All A2 land shpuld be on Land Bank balance sheet