Organisational Democracy in the Agriculture Sector in Zimbabwe. Scope, Practicality and Benefits
Zimbabwe produces high-quality cotton because it is hand-picked, thus helping it secure and establish a niche market. Exports of cotton increased from 18 tonnes in , peaked at 92 tonnes in and declined to 79 tonnes in because of low yields. Depressed world prices since the beginning of have depressed production further, although there is hope that economic recovery in the Asian economies may reverse the trend.
Exports of sugar to the EU are within two arrangements: The problem with sugar in Zimbabwe is that it is reliant on irrigation, which also depends on the rainfall pattern. As such, there have been fluctuations in the contribution of sugar to exports, with a significant drop experienced during the drought years of Figure 6 shows the trends in exports of raw and refined sugar between and After , there was a gradual decline in the exports of sugar, with the lowest levels being reached between the drought years and There was a rapid increase in sugar exports in caused by an improved market access condition following autonomous liberalization of trade in and enlargement of the EU market in The peak was reached in , and since then, there has been a gradual decline in exports of sugar mainly as a result of the decline in world commodity prices and the current land redistribution programme in the country.
The horticulture industry is the fastest growing export sector in Zimbabwe. It ranks number six in the agricultural sector in terms of its contribution to foreign currency earnings after tobacco, cotton, cereal and grain, sugar, tea and coffee. The main export market is the EU, accounting for about 95 percent of cut flower exports, 90 percent of vegetables, herbs and spices, and 75 percent of citrus fruit exports.
Total exports ballooned from 14 tonnes between and to 64 tonnes between and Figure 7. Opening up new markets in the Near East and East Asia is likely to perpetuate the growth of horticultural exports. Floriculture, a subsector of horticulture, is expanding rapidly, with flowers for export to Europe, the United States, South Africa, Austria and the Far East being grown throughout the country.
Floriculture is the least affected by the current turbulent environment, primarily because it is capital-intensive, and growers are less able to switch to alternative production. The success of the floriculture sector has been based on a free market situation requiring considerable entrepreneurial flair from producers. Until recently, Zimbabwe has been largely self-sufficient in the provision of agricultural goods. From , imports have been growing because of the increased shortages of cereals caused by drought, population growth, increased urbanization and the shift of production from cereals to cash crops.
Before the reform programme, emphasis was on food security through self-reliance in cereal production rather than through trade. As such, food imports were minimal. The implementation of the structural adjustment programme in saw a shift from self-reliance towards trade. This caused a steady increase in import value, and the peak in terms food imports was in because of the drought. Figure 8 shows the trends in agricultural imports between and Figure 9 shows the composition of agriculture imports from to Table 8 shows that wheat dominated total imports with rice, vegetables and fruits contributing significantly.
This clearly shows that Zimbabwe is a net importer of wheat grain. Agricultural product imports , with a linear trend line. Contributions of some agricultural commodities to total imports. The implementation of the UR coincided with the autonomous dismantling of some of the trade barriers on imports under the structural adjustment programme. In light of this and the UR, it is noteworthy that Zimbabwe has not abandoned quantitative restrictions on either maize imports or exports.
However, the applied duty for this commodity has been maintained at a low level to ensure that imports are not too expensive in times of need, like the drought. Investment in agriculture has been shrinking, especially since the mids, at a time when the current fast-track land reform needed resource backstopping to succeed. However, foreign investment Table 10 showed a marked increase from to , before dramatically shrinking from This is attributed to the economic and political shocks that started with the pension packages for war veterans and, thereafter, the ambiguities in land reform, farm invasions and general macroeconomic instability.
Therefore, it is very difficult to disentangle investment effects of the UR and from liberalization under IMF. In Zimbabwe, food security, defined in terms of availability of maize as the staple food product, has remained an issue of great concern in view of the increased incidence of drought-related hunger. For a number of years, agricultural food imports have constituted a large proportion of food trade.
Further, the food security situation has been seriously threatened by the increased production of cash crops by commercial farmers in the country, which have higher returns taking advantage of developments under the AoA. The fall in returns from food crops has led farmers to increase their production of non-food cash crops, which are usually grown on large farms in the country.
However, small-scale farmers have moved in to grow food crops for subsistence, with surpluses being sold. As such, the area under food crops has been increasing, although at a lower rate than for cash crops Mangoyana and Meda, Cereals supply in Zimbabwe is largely dependent on domestic production, especially when the rainfall pattern is not erratic.
Figure 10 shows that significant import surges in cereals occurred during the year because of the drought. In the Zimbabwean case, import surges during the UR period can be attributed to government policy in responding to food shortages and not to any WTO commitment as such. In Zimbabwe, post-independence agricultural policies focused on developing a high degree of food security through production while improving the welfare of the long-marginalized rural population. Government directly stimulated agricultural production by way of policies and measures on land, water, infrastructure, credit and technology.
These measures include irrigation development, input support, provision of tillage services, provision of credit and strengthening of research. It also established depots and collection points, and ensured guaranteed prices and markets. Indirect stimulants in the form of subsidies and income policies were employed to stimulate production and demand. During the same period, food insecurity at both household and national levels fell. Downsizing of operations by the GMB and the closure of several collection points became the order of the day.
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It should also be noted that liberalization brought with it unsustainable chronic increases in food prices throughout the ESAP period In , the Strategic Grain Reserve, with a ceiling of physical stocks of tonnes of maize and a floor of tonnes, was established. Studies have shown that household food insecurity worsened during liberalization. Although Zimbabwe can be generally considered food secure in terms of national requirements, household hunger, evidenced by the fact that 30 percent of children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition, is still prevalent SAPRI, The average daily energy consumption declined from 2 kcal per capita in to 2 kcal per capita in , and the situation is expected to deteriorate through to FAO, in Meda and Mangoyana.
The period saw the daily per capita supply of energy falling from 2 kcal which was above the SADC average of 2 kcal in to 2 kcal in below the SADC average of 2 kcal , i. In addition, the daily per capita supply of fats changed only by 6. Currently, food insecurity in the country is immense among the urban poor and many households in the food-deficit southern and eastern areas of the country. Bilateral food aid to meet part of the import requirement may be considered as an option according to the FAO Global Watch Report FAO, , but more worrying is the current strained relationships between the Zimbabwean government and the likely donors.
As a result, government has reverted to interventionist policies in an attempt to achieve food security. For example, Statutory Instrument , under the Control of Goods Act requires a permit for the importation and exportation of cereals. These import and export controls have been imposed and relaxed time and again. Import controls on wheat were relaxed in , while export controls for wheat were relaxed in The current grain shortage has forced the government to abandon grain exports, and it is now importing more of the product.
In an effort to enhance food security, the Ministry of Agriculture has put in place incentives in the form of an input credit scheme to assist the smallholder farmers starting in the year and has undertaken to review producer prices. Through these measures, production is expected to increase to about 2. This will be adequate to fully meet domestic maize needs, maintain a strategic reserve, and expand exports.
However, at the moment, the country is facing a widespread grain shortage. The reason for the food shortages is poor grain management by the authorities. Nearly eight years after the implementation of the WTO AoA, trade barriers in agricultural goods still exist. There are many key issues that Zimbabwe, together with other developing countries, considers to be important in negotiating for future effective AoA in the wake of commitments undertaken at the 4th WTO ministerial meeting held in Doha in Tariff reduction has not necessarily made developed markets accessible see Table Average agricultural tariffs remain higher than industrial tariffs because tariffication resulted in higher tariff protection.
Tariff reductions have also led to increased tariff dispersion. The structure of agricultural tariffs has become complex with the frequent use of specific and other non- ad valorem rates. Tariff structures in developed countries should be made more unified, simplified, transparent and less complex, and all tariffs should be converted to ad valorem tariffs. Tariff peaks are defined as tariff rates that are 20 percent or more.
All are MFN tariffs. The numbers in parentheses in the product are Standard International Trade Classification numbers. In the next round of negotiations, a concerted effort should be made to phase out TRQs and incorporate all market access opportunities on an MFN basis. TRQs should not act as quantitative restrictions. To this end, Zimbabwe proposed that there should be:. Tariff peaks in agriculture are most common in three product groups: Products with the highest frequencies of tariff peaks and escalation are in the major agricultural staple foods - cereals, meat, sugar, milk, butter and cheese - as well as those of export interest to developing countries, such as sugar, tobacco, cotton and fruits and vegetables UNCTAD, Indeed, it is not uncommon for these high OECD tariff peaks to exceed percent.
An appropriate formula should be used to reduce these extremely high tariffs by larger amounts to more reasonable levels. Tariff reductions should be weighted to ensure that sensitive products in developed countries are not given further protection.
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Developing countries should be allowed meaningful flexibility, i. High levels of protection in developed countries are grossly unfair as they defeat the whole purpose of the AoA. For the United States, they are more than three-quarters as high. For two major cereals, wheat and maize, the bound tariff rates for developing countries are 94 percent for wheat and 90 percent for maize.
In contrast, the OECD average in the first year of implementation was calculated at percent for wheat, percent for barley and percent for maize FAO, In the next round of negotiations, Zimbabwe should press for a revision of tariff reduction targets that have to be met within certain periods. The aim should be for tariffs of all developed countries initially and developing countries later to converge at specific points within a certain period to ensure the achievement of a level playing field for all farmers of member countries.
Provision of special safeguards presents a number of problems for developing countries. These need to be modified to make it more responsive to the needs and conditions of the developing countries. In view of the need to enable farmers to adjust to increased competition and also to diversify their production in the face of a surge in imports or a decline in prices, developing countries should be allowed to levy SSG duties for a longer duration. They should also press for a revision of the trigger mechanisms that unfairly constrain their exports.
For the developing countries group, there are a number of contentious issues. They contend that the ongoing AoA process needs to be reoriented to address issues of food security and rural livelihoods in their countries. Before the AoA, developing countries were generally not applying domestic support measures and did not record them in their schedules, and they have been barred from applying these measures in the future beyond the de minimis levels.
Countries that had a high AMS generally the developed countries have been allowed to maintain them with a gradual reduction. After applying the 20 percent reduction schedule as required by the AoA, some developed countries still have comparatively high levels of support.
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Further, the delinking of the AMS from fluctuations in international prices and exchange rates means that a country can meet its AMS reduction commitments and at the same time experience an increasing real level of protection i. In addition, developing countries face problems in calculating the AMS owing to excessive changes in macroeconomic factors such as excessive inflation. A country experiencing substantial rates of inflation since the base period may actually have a negative AMS. On exemptions from AMS reduction commitments, problems have emerged regarding criteria for exempt measures in Green Box measures and the de minimis limit.
The de minimis limit of 10 percent does not provide developing countries with flexibility in the provision of domestic support, and several of them are close to the ceiling. The criteria for exempt measures in the green box are not clearly defined, allowing countries to disguise support measures that should not meet the criteria for inclusion in Green Box exemptions.
Increase the de minimis limit for developing countries to incorporate adequate coverage for food security. Allow developing countries without domestic support to introduce it and then recalculate the AMS for them. Ensure that developed countries are in fact reducing domestic support by making it obligatory for countries to notify the products and levels of support a few years in advance. Ensure that the criteria for green box measures are scrutinized on a regular basis and the coverage is sufficient to ensure that these measures are non or minimally trade and production distorting.
Continue the special and differential treatment SDT support measures as included for developing countries in the exemption commitments.
Organisational Democracy in the Agriculture Sector in Zimbabwe.
The SDT measures should include all domestic support by government for the production of food for local consumption and all support for agricultural production by small farmers. The bulk of developing world farmers are smallholders and their ability to take advantage of trade liberalization is limited by inadequate supply capacities, resource endowments, and access to markets.
SDT measures can help these farmers to build up their supply capacities and improve their competitiveness. This is supported by Russell , who argued that workers are more motivated to carry out the decisions which they, themselves, have made. Budd and Scovill pointed out that by using participative groups, where 1 employees are involved in setting goals of the organisation and meeting them, 2 communication is initiated at all points, and 3 flow of information is multidirectional, there is lower absenteeism, waste production and loss.
Ward and Williams indicated that when employees are involved in making decisions, there is a greater likelihood of imaginative solutions to problems, successful implementation of strategies, increased commitment, loyalty and cooperation. Rayasan confirmed earlier indications that democracy at the workplace assists in recruiting bright employees who wish to join organisations that value their ideas and contributions. Lewin as cited in Garth, said that most workplace problems, even technical and economical, have some social connotations since there is the involvement of people's feelings, perceptions, motivation and commitment.
Furthering the argument, Nayer said that the democratic right of workers is linked to the need to control management power in the organisation, whereas property rights are concerned with all the other things in the organisation. So any use of property proposed by the workers may be vetoed by the owner. Democracy should not violate property rights in that it tends to invest a lot of control in people who have no right to ownership nor have an interest in ownership Palgrave McMillan Dictionary of Political Thought, In pointing out that there are various forms of industrial democracy that provide workers with different levels of power on decision making Collins Dictionary of Business, ; McMillan Encyclopaedia, , another focus of uncertainty arises about what form of democracy should be adopted: The Ultimate Resource argued that in industrial democracy, workers must not only share in the inputs but also in the outputs of the organisation.
In view of the above discussion, I predict that the scope and nature of industrial democracy relate to the society in which the organisation is located hypothesis 3. In the light of the above discussions, the main aim of this study is, therefore, to find out if democracy enhances productivity and if it is a practical strategy in the agricultural sector in Zimbabwe. Specifically, though the research objectives were to investigate the following with respect to companies in the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe:. Whether there is a relationship between organisational democracy and productivity.
The total population comprised 6 employees working in nine major agricultural companies in Chipinge District of Zimbabwe. The agriculture sector has been chosen because that is a sector that produces most products for export, hence earning foreign currency for the country. The agriculture sector is the highest single employer in the country. These companies were selected because they have corporate management styles and are registered under the Companies Act of Zimbabwe.
Most of the companies from which the participants were selected practice a fair level of industrial democracy. The results of this study will show if there are areas in which democratic principles and structures would be improved in these organisations. Stratified random sampling was used. The respondents were selected from management employees and worker representatives of these companies. The worker representatives in this research include all employees who have been elected into workers committees and who are part of the works council.
The total number of management employees and worker representatives in these companies is From these, 45 worker representatives and 45 management employees were randomly chosen to take part in the study. The age range was from 18 to 49, with a mean of 32, Of the 90 participants, 40 were involved in group interview while the other 50 were involved as questionnaire respondents.
Organisational Democracy in the Agriculture Sector in Zimbabwe. Research Design, approach and Method: Introduction Democracy has become a major political system in the last few centuries. Specifically, the objective of the research was to investigate the following with respect to companies in the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe: The relationship between industrial democracy and productivity Literature Survey The labour commission of the International Labour Organisation recommended that workers must be accorded the rights that every citizen must have and that a workplace should ideally use social dialogue in order to create organisational peace and in the process create conditions for achieving labour productivity and improve welfare for all.
On the other hand decisions that come from management must be made public to the employees before their implementation In respect of the above definition, industrial democracy is measured by: History of industrial democracy Industrial democracy emerged from the work of John Dewey and Kurt Lewin , who both agreed that democracy must be learned by each generation and that it is a form of social structure, which is attainable but difficult to maintain Smith ,; Tognotti, Forms democracy can take at work Industrial democracy can take two broad forms: Guiding Principles of Industrial Democracy The functioning of any democratic system is based on certain core principles that must be abided by, such as shared values Miller, Aspects of industrial Democracy Kester identified some aspects that can indicate organisational democracy, such as worker representation, joint councils, joint committees, gender representation and educational training.
Areas of Involvement Workers are primarily interested in participating in areas that concern their working lives such as wages, working conditions and controlling powers of managers over them Penguin Dictionary of Sociology, Why the Need for Democracy in the Workplace The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought indicated that democracy helps the organisation to identify the interests of the workforce and so increases their motivation. Specifically, though the research objectives were to investigate the following with respect to companies in the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe: Method Population and Sampling The total population comprised 6 employees working in nine major agricultural companies in Chipinge District of Zimbabwe.
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