Mutasa Small Holder Farmers and Covid-19

In the Odzani area of Mutasa there is no fruit for sale and practically no veg except covo/tsunga/rape and the odd cabbage.

We needed a bottle of ‘Exit’ for livestock treatment during the week which necessitated access to Mutare.

Anyone who thinks the Lockdown will end after 21 days is living in a bubble.

• Too much movement looking for basics

We need to isolate villages and map their health status

• When the time is deemed right villages and areas can have restrictions relaxed
• Keeping Covid-19 out of rural areas will allow MoHCC to concentrate on hot spots

A GOODS TRANSPORT SYSTEM to reduce people movement is imperative

• The idea of using kombis without seats as outlined in our last post is an available resource that can be brought into action with minimal planning.
• Sabhukus, village health workers are kingpins to its management.

Smallholder Farmers need to plan product marketing now and to develop coping mechanisms especially should the lock down be extended, which it must.

• Farmers must remain on their farms and not be exposed further by town trips.
• Only their goods should move.
• This can be facilitated by officials (eg Agritex) who oversee the dispatch of products to markets in standardised boxes for set prices, set by Agritex, on current input standardised prices of inputs and allowing a ‘reasonable’ margin to farmers.
• Likewise the prices to consumers should also be controlled for the moment.

We must stop farmers breaking isolation and going to town and picking up infection at crowded infection junctions such as the traditional chaotic Musika markets.

• We will need those farmers when this plague passes.
• If they go to crowded markets we shall lose an unhealthy proportion of our more productive farmers
• They are not much use to us dead
• LET’S HELP AND PROTECT THEM.

I’d love to be able to buy a banana in my area…..