via ‘Fire Joseph Made’ – DailyNews Live by Thelma Chikwanha 25 MARCH 2014
Samuel Sipepa-Nkomo, the MDC shadow minister for Agriculture, has called for the dismissal of Joseph Made from his position as minister of Agriculture.
In an interview with the Daily News, Nkomo said Made, who has been at the helm of Agriculture, was out of his depth and could therefore not revive the sector.
“My honest opinion is that if you want to change the agricultural sector, change the minister,” Nkomo said.
“(President Robert) Mugabe must change the minister and look for another because I believe agriculture is alright but the driver is not driving. He is sitting on the driver’s seat but he is not driving and I believe he has been there too long and has no new ideas.”
Made, who is also Mugabe’s farm manager, has always blamed perennial droughts for failure to grow enough crops to feed the nation. But recently he predicted a bumper harvest after the good rains, a claim which has been challenged by lawmakers.
“I think minister Made is fond of day dreaming,” Nkomo said. “He’s really fond of dreaming. I do not seriously believe that we will have a bumper harvest because good rains do not necessarily translate to a bumper harvest.
“There are areas where we had good rains but these good rains actually prevented the bumper harvest and if you go to the areas where Zimbabwe relies on for maize, it did not rain properly. There were good rains in areas like Masvingo, Matabeleland and Midlands where maize is not a good crop to grow.”
The former minister of Water Resources Development said a bumper harvest was far-fetched because areas popular for growing maize such as Chinhoyi did not receive adequate rains.
He said a significant amount of farm land was under utilised.
“During the days of white farmers as you drive along Harare-Bulawayo road, you would see a lot of maize but now you see nothing,” he said. “Drive along Mazowe road and Chinhoyi road going down to Chirundu and you will see nothing again. You will find that a lot of land is not being utilised.”
The MDC senator told the Daily News that he did not see how minister Made could have arrived at predicting a bumper harvest based on good rains as too much rain was sometimes detrimental to crop development.
“I don’t normally take what Made says seriously because he has told us about a bumper harvest; he has presided over the funeral of agriculture in our country for over 14 years. He is long on talk and short on delivery,” he said.
Asked how agriculture could be revived, Nkomo said there was need for government to fully empower the farmer.
“Empower the farmer once, make sure he has got his equipment but you have to negotiate a package which must be guaranteed by government with Agribank and other banks,” he said.
“Government should have a project, a scheme of arrangement where they will empower farmers who do crop production, livestock production and say this amount of money you are going to get is not for free, you pay it over five or 10 years and then the farmer is empowered.”
The MDC official’s observation comes after a senior official in the Agriculture ministry said Zimbabwe would most likely experience another poor harvest as government dismally failed to support small-holder farmers.
Government intended to supply 81 000 metric tonnes of compound D but only 47 percent of that was availed to the farmers. Only 43 percent of the 80 000 tonnes of top dressing was made available to farmers.
COMMENTS
Fire him, hang, draw and quarter him or ignore him. Made is a nobody, a boot licking spineless ass, a perfect ZANU specimen. One of out proud liberators. I bet he is good for another 10 year in cabinet if ZANU lasts that long.
MAD MADE!
anenge anoti akakwira helcopter oto dhunya muface uyu,remember last time again he mis led us,or as a farm manager his main aim is to deliver for his masters which to him seems the nation if not the world.
Mad Made must go. He and sekuru Bob and blunderers have completely stuffed up our country. GO HANG YOURSELF MADE.
I agree 100% Nyoni
I think the same can be said for most if not all of the ministerial positions, not one has performed or is performing.
@Zvakwana. You so damn right. Not even 1 ministry can be said to be producing any result. Hapana kana munhu mumwe arikugona basa rake. Even those who say Bob akaoma, not 1 single thing in the past 15 years. Education will be his only legacy which he has in turn destroyed, otherwise hapana chimwe. He has divided the nation, Gukurahundi, destroyed agriculture, destroyed industry, isolated Zimbabwe, destroyed our pride. I remember when we used to make jokes about Malawai, Moza, Zambia, Botswana, etc but now we are the truest biggest joke. I think we can conclude that the modest improvements we saw during the GNU were due to the presence of MDC, cause everything is downhill since the “overwhelming win”. Zanu advocates were saying the MDC was dragging the progress, actually the MDC presence in the GNU was dragging the destruction. At least we had some respite and now we know who is to blame.
Education without wisdom and initiative makes a damn foolish person. Minister Made has had enough exposure to crop estimates and yet he gives misleading harvest estimates crop-season-in and crop-season-out. Crop survey by air is meant to cross check ground crop estimates in particular plant population, crop stand and crop health. A good crop aerial survey requires intelligence, good observation, good judgement and correlation of both ground and aerial surveys. A good crop estimate should be spot on or at the lowest 85% of the final harvest. Minister Made has consistently given wrong crop estimate figures resulting in misplaning by government for crop finance and handling.
Yes, Minister Made must be fired for incompetence and lack of commitment to duty.
When the fundamental ideology is wrong then any minister’s action is irrelevent. It’s like trying to stop a runaway train by sticking your foot out onto the ground. It’s like Mugabe telling Chinamasa ‘Find the money Chinamasa’ Pleased to tell you Bob, even if no one else will tell you ‘THERE AIN’T NO MONEY!’ You killed all the golden geese you mampara!