Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

FORMER Finance deputy minister Terrence Mukupe is embroiled in a land wrangle in which he is seeking to evict resettled farmers at Mt Olympus Farm in Goromonzi. The former Harare East legislator, who is reportedly behind Farmtel Investments, has since written to about seven farmers, through his lawyers Mangwana and Partners, ordering them to vacate the land. According to a letter to one

Source: Fertilizer industry to cast forex nets in interbank market – NewsDay Zimbabwe April 2, 2019

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

ZIMBABWE’S fertilizer producers plan to partner with players in the industry’s value chain, including farmers and finance houses, to pool funds and source foreign currency from the interbank market.

Zimbabwe Fertilizer Manufacturers Association chairman Tapuwa Mashingaidze told NewsDay that there was need for players in the value chain to work together for the development of the sector.

“The immediate plan is to collaborate with various players in the fertilizer value chain, including farmers and grain millers, tobacco companies, oil seeds expressors, as well as financiers to create funding structures and capacity to secure forex from the new interbank market and procure all the materials required for the next season and beyond,” Mashingaidze said.

He said there were also major investments that primary producers had in mind in order to increase the local manufacturing of major raw materials such as ammonium nitrate (AN) and urea fertilizer by Sable Chemicals, including various phosphates by ZimPhos.

“In the medium to long-term, Sable will be producing ammonium nitrate and urea from either coal bed methane from Lupane if this gets sufficiently developed soon or alternatively use natural gas brought by a new pipeline from Mozambique,” he said.

“These gas resources will create a major new class of industries, including power generation, chemicals and nitrogen fertilizers (AN and urea) production. In addition, ZimPhos is currently building a brand new sulphuric acid plant to replace the old units at Msasa and this will lead to reduced imports of phosphates and also reduce costs by 2020.”

He said the company also planned to increase sulphuric acid production and refurbish its mothballed phosphoric acid plant which would resuscitate the manufacture of triple superphosphate and other high analysis phosphates in the next few years.

“These plans also involve substantial exports into the region,” he said.

Mashingaidze said the industry mostly relied on a firm demand for fertilizers generated by an efficiently operating agricultural sector with effective funding structures.

“Adequate government support for special programmes such as command, etcetera, also boost demand and make the fertilizer business viable. The way contracts are administered can, therefore, be managed to enhance the industry’s operations and viability,” he said.

“For example, early conclusion of contracts and placement of orders before the growing season enables manufacturers to source and produce fertilizer into stock in good time to avoid shortages due to the long delivery times and logistic factors involved in the supply chains.”

He said a national fertilizer policy should be drawn up to give guidance and incentives to all stakeholders on all these issues.

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THE Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda has defended the proposed appointment of Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo as chairperson of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission saying the High Court Judge was competent and qualified for the job. Advocate Mudenda, who is also the chairperson of Parliament’s Committee on Standing Rules and Orders (CSRO), said this […]

Source: Zimbabwe: Agriculture Sector Disaster Risk Assessment – Zimbabwe | ReliefWeb

Executive Summary

This report presents an assessment of Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector disaster risk and management capacity. The findings indicate that Zimbabwe is highly exposed to agricultural risks and has limited capacity to manage risk at various levels. The report shows that disaster-related shocks along Zimbabwe’s agricultural supply chains directly translate to volatility in agricultural GDP. Such shocks have a substantial impact on economic growth, food security, and fiscal balance.

When catastrophic disasters occur, the economy absorbs the shocks, without benefiting from any instruments that transfer the risk to markets and coping ability. The increasing prevalence of “shock-recovery-shock” cycles impairs Zimbabwe’s ability to plan and pursue a sustainable development path.

The findings presented here confirm that it is highly pertinent for Zimbabwe to strengthen the capacity to manage risk at various levels, from the smallholder farmer to other participants along the supply chain, to consumers (who require a reliable, safe food supply), and ultimately to the government to manage natural disasters.

The assessment provides the following evidence on sources of risks and plausible risk management solutions. It is our hope that the report contributes to action by the Government of Zimbabwe to adopt a proactive and integrated risk management strategy appropriate to the current structure of the agricultural sector.

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Source: U.S. Economist Ranks Zimbabwe Second Most Miserable Country in the World | The African Exponent

• Are Zimbabweans truly miserable?

• “I have learned now that while those who speak about one’s miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more.”

   ― C. S. Lewis

  How does it feel to wake up in the morning of the first day of a new month to the news that your country has been ranked as the second most miserable country in the world? Well, that is the situation Zimbabweans find themselves on April Fool’s Day.

  While many were shocked by the news, hoping it was one of those social media memes that would be called back, others believe it is a confirmation of what they already know. Either way, social media is buzzing with reactions to the news.

  Steve Hanke, a renowned United States economist at John Hopkins University has released the current list of the World’s Most Miserable Countries.

  Every week, get a digest of Top African News and Articles from The African Exponent.

  In his report, he ranked Zimbabwe second on the list. Africa’s most populous black nation and the self-acclaimed giant of Africa, Nigeria was ranked the sixth most miserable country in the world.

  He said the high rate of unemployment in the countries were the major contributor to the “misery”. It appears he is right because the high rate of unemployment and under-employment in Africa is worrisome.

  Speaking on unemployment in Zimbabwe, the report read:

  “In Zimbabwe, unemployment is the main concern with a projected rate of close to 80% for 2019. This number may be skewed depending on how unemployment is counted. Thailand is often near the very bottom of the list due in large part to their rather unorthodox way of counting employment as well as their low fertility rate and aging population. Much of Zimbabwe’s population works in the “informal economy” which includes people working unpaid for a family business or paid employees who are not entitled to sick leave or paid holidays. These people are not counted as employed.”

  The Misery Index is a yearly report published by John Hopkins University in Baltimore, United States. It is usually derived using economic indices, including unemployment, inflation, and bank lending rates.

  Details on the report read:

  “The first Misery Index was constructed by an economist, Art Okun, in the 1960s as a way to provide President Lyndon Johnson of US with an easily digestible snapshot of the economy. That original Misery Index was just a simple sum of a nation’s annual inflation rate and its unemployment rate.

  “The index has been modified several times, first by Robert Barro of Harvard University and then by myself. My modified Misery Index is the sum of the unemployment, inflation and bank lending rates, minus the percentage change in real GDP per capita.

  “Higher readings on the first three elements are bad and make people more miserable. These are offset by a good (GDP per capita growth), which is subtracted from the sum of the ‘bads’. A higher Misery Index score reflects a higher level of misery, and it’s a simple enough metric that a busy president, without time for extensive economic briefings, can understand at a glance.

  “The accompanying table contains Misery Index rankings for the 95 nations that report relevant data on a timely basis. For consistency and comparability, and with few exceptions, data were retrieved from the Economist Intelligence Unit.”

  The Top 10 Countries on the Misery Index 2019 Include:

  1. Venezuela
  2. Zimbabwe
  3. Argentina
  4. Iran
  5. Bosnia
  6. Nigeria
  7. South Africa
  8. Yemen
  9. Kosovo
  10. Turkey

  Header Image Credit: Daily Mail

 

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