Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0423/04230.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 25KB | 387 lines

$Unique_ID{COW04230}
$Pretitle{371}
$Title{Zimbabwe
Chapter 3B.   Crop Cultivation}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Donald P. Whitaker}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{percent
areas
commercial
african
manufacturing
government
cattle
total
number
sector}
$Date{1982}
$Log{Fishing*0423004.scf
}
Country:     Zimbabwe
Book:        Zimbabwe, A Country Study
Author:      Donald P. Whitaker
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 3B.   Crop Cultivation

     The country's tropical climate, moderated by elevation in the highveld
and enhanced by irrigation in the warm, arid lowveld regions, permits the
cultivation of a variety of crops that ranges from tropical to temperate.
Among the more important are maize, millet, sorghum, wheat, cotton, tobacco,
groundnuts (peanuts), soybeans, deciduous fruits (apples, peaches, pears,
plums, and others), citrus fruits (mainly oranges), bananas, coffee,
sugarcane, and tea. In all some fifteen crops are grown in significant
quantities. Maize, millet, sorghum, groundnuts, and cotton are main crops in
the African communal areas. But beans, cowpeas sweet potatoes, vegetables, and
tobacco are also widely grown. Cotton, groundnuts, and tobacco have been the
chief African area cash crops; but surpluses of other crops are also sold. In
the commercial farming area, the main crops are much the same, although millet
is not usually cultivated. Additionally the commercial sector produces in
quantity other crops, such as fruits, sugar (sugarcane), coffee, and tea (see
table 8; table 9, Appendix).

     For many years the seasonal nature of rainfall and the usually rapid
runoff have led commercial farmers to construct small dams and weirs to supply
water for crops and livestock. By 1978 there were over 9,800 private dams and
weirs in the white farming areas, and the government had constructed more than
1,300 in the African communal areas. The governmental Tribal Trust Land
Development Corporation (TILCOR), established in 1968, has also built a number
of dams for small irrigation projects in the communal areas. The government
has additionally constructed several large dams for irrigation, including Kyle
and Bangala dams on the Mtilikwe River in the southern lowveld. Water from
this latter system provides irrigation notably for two large private estates
at Triangle and Hippo Valley. These estates initially concentrated on
sugarcane, but after the beginning of UN sanctions they greatly diversified
their crops-Hippo Valley has become famous for its citrus fruits. In 1982,
however, sugarcane remained the major crop, and the output of sugar not only
met Zimbabwe's total requirement but also provided a substantial quantity for
export.

     In 1965 the government established the Sabi-Limpopo Authority to promote
irrigation in the southeastern lowveld region. Another principal aim was to
encourage white settlement in the area. There was relatively little response,
apparently in considerable part because of sanctions, which dampened private
investment. Available data on the Sabi River valley, where there is a large
amount of land suitable for cultivation, indicated that about 15,000 hectares
were under irrigation in mid-1982. A contract for a feasibility study on
irrigation development on 40,000 hectares in the Chisumbanje region in the
valley was reported to have been awarded. The study was being financed by the
Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.

Livestock

     Livestock products-mostly beef and milk produced by the commercial
sector-accounted for roughly 25 to 30 percent of agricultural output in most
years. Sales of livestock and milk by the African subsistance sector through
government marketing agencies have amounted to only about 4 to 5 percent of
total sales; of the beef consumed domestically, the sector has provided an
estimated 25 to 40 percent. This relatively small share (in view of the size
of the African herd, which exceeded that of the commercial sector) was related
to the widely held belief that a man's status and wealth are associated with
the number of cattle he owns.

     When the European occupation of the territory began in the late
nineteenth century, the cattle herd of the Ndebele was estimated at about
150,000. Thefts by white raiders and confiscations by agents of BSAC after the
1893-94 Ndebele uprising (most of these cattle appear to have been
subsequently sold in South Africa) were followed in 1896 by the outbreak of a
major rinderpest epidemic and the remaining herd was further drastically
reduced. Although effective measures against the disease were started the
following year, by the end of the century the total number of African cattle
was only about 55,000; European-owned animals numbered roughly 10,000 to
12,000. From the early 1900s, however, the African herd grew at a steady rate
that was soon matched by growth in numbers of European-owned cattle. By 1925
Africans had over 1 million animals, the European herd was almost as large,
and competition for grazing was intense. One result of the great increase in
cattle in the African areas was overgrazing and erosion. During the 1920s and
1930s the government attempted voluntary destocking programs that had little
success. They were made compulsory through the Natural Resources Act of 1941,
under which the livestock-carrying capacity of each African area was
determined, and cattle owners were forced to sell or slaughter all animals
declared surplus. The low price received from buyers, who were mostly white
farmers, created wide resentment. The number of African cattle, which was
estimated at close to 1.8 million in 1941, appears to have remained relatively
constant thereafter until the mid-1960s. In 1967 the total rose to almost 2.2
million and gradually increased to 3.4 million in 1977.

     The European cattle herd had declined after 1925, the result apparently
of a shift to tobacco growing by white farmers, stimulated by the tobacco
export boom of the late 1920s, and a shift to cotton and dairy farming. In
1930 facilities became available for exporting chilled and frozen beef to
Britain, but any incentive to increase herd size was almost immediately
destroyed by the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and an embargo on exports
that lasted two years. By 1936 European cattle numbered only about 750,000.
Exports, which again became a significant factor in the 1950s, and growing
domestic demand led to a gradual increase to some 1.6 million head in 1965.
Notably, whereas destocking was enforced in the African areas during this
time, utilization of white reserved grazing land had reached no more than 60
percent of the stocking capacity by 1965. Stocking had been quite low on
grazing land in the better cropping regions to that time, mainly because of
the emphasis on cultivation, from which better returns were usually received.
An upsurge in cattle numbers occurred from the mid-1960s, however, as many
farmers affected by tobacco overproduction and low prices changed to beef
production. Moreover beef was found a relatively easily exportable item under
sanction conditions.

     From about 1976 both the African and the commercial cattle herds were
affected by terrorist actions attributed to guerrilla forces that were
particularly serious in the African communal areas. Over time, government
veterinary and animal health services built up in the communal areas had
brought tsetse fly infestations under control and had almost completely
eradicated tick-borne diseases. In what appeared to be an intentional effort
to disrupt the cattle industry, guerrillas had by 1978 damaged or made
inoperable about half the antitick dipping tanks in the communal areas; water
sources and fences had also been destroyed. Guerrilla activities, moreover,
prevented continuation of efforts against the tsetse fly. The result was net
losses of cattle from disease and other causes by African owners estimated at
over 1 million head. The white commercial sector suffered much smaller losses
estimated at over 170,000. I