Farmers defy govt directive

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

Farmers will ignore the government directive to sell their maize to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB)’ within two weeks after harvest saying the price offered was ‘too’ little, it has been learnt.

The farmers want to be paid in United States dollars rather than the ZWL$75 000 a tonne offered, which they believe will not  viable for them to return to the fields next cropping season.

“The government may want to push the strategic grain reserves and to curb side marketing, but this is not tenable as it curtails the freedom that should be exercised by farmers,” the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Shadreck Makombe told Business Times.

He added: “On the other hand, farming is a business on its own. Therefore it needs a great deal of capital to do so. They should not kill the goose that is laying the golden eggs. Government should put competitive prices to ensure farmers sell to the marketing board.”

In a survey done by Business Times, farmers said they will withhold their produce to sell to those who are offering US$.

This is against GMB’s instruction to apply for exemption if a farmer is retaining his harvest.

A Wedza based farmer Lameck Mururami told this publication that farmers will defy GMB controls.

“There is only one way to encourage farmers to sell to the Grain Marketing Board that is to offer competitive prices which can lure farmers to do so. Without that farmers will not yield to your demands,” Mururami said.

He added: “Even those who were contracted need a good price to clear their obligations as uncompetitive prices such as the ZWL$75 000 will not allow farmers to clear debts as the overall output has plummeted.”

Government has put some controls on maize, wheat and soyabeans through Statutory Instrument which made GMB to be a sole buyer of these grains.

But farmers believe good crop prices could have lured farmers into selling to GMB.

Farmers argue that they are procuring all their inputs in US$ with prices having gone up in hard currency, thereby pushing up the cost of production.

“I don’t know how the government plans its pricing structure as it is not in line with inflationary pressures in the market as the ZWL$75 000 price was around US$214 with exactly a week after that the price per tonne is now US$197 per tonne. We expect the price per tonne to around US$150 by the end of this month.

“The private buyers are offering US$280 per tonne, certainly a farmer will do side marketing to return to the field,” Irvodale ward farmer Last Kamukono said.

Experts say there is urgent need for a review of prices to lure farmers to sell their crops to GMB warning that failure to review the prices would result in Zimbabwe using US$350m for grain imports from the initially budgeted US$200m.

Zimbabwe needs 2.1m tonnes annually for both  human and livestock consumption and with the output projected at 1,557,914 metric tonnes the authorities are expected to pump out more money for importation.