Abstract

Many governments and donor aid agencies have been involved in distributing free agricultural inputs to farmers particularly during periods of natural disasters, harsheconomic environments or unjust government policies which could create vulnerable groups of farmers. When properly targeted, such efforts have enabled vulnerable farmers to regain crop and livestock productivity while recovering from their setbacks. However, in recent times critics have questioned the appropriateness of the approach of directly handing out free inputs to farmers on the basis that it undermines the traditional private agricultural input markets and also that it promotes the dependency syndrome among farmers. In addition, there are inherent distribution inefficiencies associated with the direct handout of free inputs to farmers. This paper is a policy perspective which attempts to answer the question whether governments should be involved in the distribution of free agricultural inputs to farmers. Based on the experiences derived from Zimbabwe’s land reform program in which the government embarked on a massive free agricultural inputs agenda, the paper offers a critique of the merits and demerits of alternative agricultural inputs distribution approaches. The paper also proposes practical policy strategies for the private sector, governments and donor aid agencies. Finally, the paper concludes that there is rationale for direct government supply of free inputs to farmers provided the objective is to ensure agricultural recovery and food security or to complement failed private sector input marketing channels. However, in general government agricultural input distribution schemes should be limited to the provision of recovery and relief inputs to properly targeted vulnerable farmers. Private input marketing firms and financial institutions should play the pivotal role in the supply of inputs to farmers while the government and development aid agencies play the facilitatory roles of creating conducive policies and promoting the sharing of costs and risks between the farmers and input suppliers.

Key words: Zimbabwe, agricultural inputs, role of government, free distribution, private sector markets, policy, dependence syndrome.