US embassy cable - 04HARARE1693

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 001693 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/S 
USDOC FOR AMANDA HILLIGAS 
TREASURY FOR OREN WYCHE-SHAW 
PASS USTR FLORIZELLE LISER 
STATE PASS USAID FOR MARJORIE COPSON 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR, ECON, ETRD, EINV, PGOV, ZI, Land Reform 
SUBJECT: Tough Going for New Farmers 
 
Sensitive but unclassified. 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: In an initial call on the Ambassador, 
five Indigenous Commercial Farmers Union (ICFU) officials 
spelled out the hurdles they confront merging 12,000 land 
reform beneficiaries with their smaller pre-land reform 
membership. They also showed a willingness to work with a 
broader range of groups in the farming sector to 
stimulate debate on critical land policy issues. End 
summary. 
 
2. (SBU) In introducing his organization, President 
Davison Mugabe (no relation to Robert) recounted that 
many black commercial farmers broke away from the mostly- 
white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) in 1990 and founded 
the ICFU.  The ICFU remained smaller than the CFU until 
200, when the GOZ began driving white farmers from their 
land under fast-track land reform.  The organization now 
claims an odd mix of 300-400 serious, mostly black 
commercial farmers who purchased their land, and 12,000 
new members who recently took over or received land under 
the GOZ's so-called "fast track" land reform. 
 
3. (SBU) The ICFU officials identified the many obstacles 
the country would have to surmount to get agriculture 
back to previous levels of productivity.  We summarize 
below. 
 
- Finance.  ICFU officials said they expected the GOZ to 
issue 99-year leases in the near future, but they did not 
know whether the leases would be transferable or could 
serve as collateral for loans. 
- Machinery.  Tractors for tillage of land have been 
reduced from 44,000, pre-land reform, to 9,000, according 
to the ICFU officials.  Irrigation units belonging to 
dispossessed farmers are in disrepair, often through 
vandalism or misuse. 
- Training.  The ICFU officials said they lack resources 
to provide training to inexperienced new farmers.  In the 
meantime, they have asked all large-scale ICFU-affiliated 
farmers to mentor at least five new farmers.  In 
subsequent discussion, they evinced a willingness to work 
with the CFU on joint training projects. 
- Organization.  The officials admitted their offices and 
other physical facilities are inadequate for an 
organization of 12,000 farmers.  They admitted their 
largely unproductive new members contribute nearly 
nothing in dues. 
- Environmental Management.  They complained that new 
farmers are overtaxing resources on formerly white-run 
farms by allowing cows to overgraze and by cutting down 
too many trees for quick sale as firewood. 
- Infrastructure.  In oparceling out land to new farmers, 
the GOZ has frequently divided one large farm into five 
or ten smaller units, without putting any mechanism in 
place to collectively manage assets.  A new farmer 
allotted a plot with water or electricity resources is 
not required to share with his new neighbors, according 
to the ICFU representatives. 
- Market Conditions.  The ICFU farmers said GOZ policies 
discourage agricultural output, by, for example, 
underpaying for grain and tobacco.  ICFU Vice-President 
Mudzikisi noted that he has shifted production on his 
farm from maize to paprika and sorghum, since the GOZ 
does not control the prices of these crops. 
 
4. (SBU) Comment: We were encouraged that the ICFU 
President restated his willingness to engage in formal 
talks, and even a merger, with the CFU.  Tapping into the 
CFU's still excellent resource base might be the only way 
for the ICFU to expand services to new farmers.  As 
former dues-paying CFU members, ICFU members we talked to 
feel they should be able to access the CFU's superior 
facilities, technical expertise, training and 
international contacts.  "We paid for it," snapped Wilson 
Nyabonda, one of Zimbabwe's largest tobacco farmers.  At 
the same time, merging with the predominantly black ICFU 
might be the best way for the mostly-white CFU to survive 
in the new Zimbabwe.  Unfortunately, our contacts with 
the CFU suggest that they have not yet adjusted to this 
reality. 
 
5. (SBU) No one expects a large influx of donor funds for 
agricultural recovery at this time.  With or without 
donor funds, it is impossible to restore output to pre- 
land reform levels even in the medium term, absent a 
dramatic GOZ policy shift away from centralized control 
and towards restoration of the rule of law.  In the short- 
term, however, coordination among the various farming 
unions to stimulate debate on what policies are necessary 
to restore agricultural productivity could set the stage 
for future progress.  Equally important, such 
coordination and dialogue on land policy, based on shared 
economic interests, would cut across partisan lines and 
begin to limit Mugabe's populist-inspired control of the 
land issue.  End comment. 
 
Weisenfeld