LETTICIA MAGOMBO
Zimbabwe farmers say the skyrocketing prices of farming inputs will affect preparations for the 2022/23 summer cropping season.
A survey conducted by Business Times this week shows that a 50 kilogramme (kg) bag of fertiliser is now selling at about US$65 from around US$50, while a 25kg bag of maize seed which was last year pegged at US$30 is now selling at between US$70 and US$100, among other inputs.
“All input costs have skyrocketed, be it fertilisers, seeds, chemicals, labour, fuel name it all. Inputs have gone up so much that it is beyond our reach. Many farmers could go out of business because of viability challenges due to high costs of inputs,” the vice president of the Zimbabwe National Farmers Union, Edward Dune told Business Times.
He said local farmers were struggling to access export markets due to poor government policies.
“We need policy environments to uplift our farmers in terms of accessibility to export markets so that they can earn foreign currency. Our local markets are remunerating farmers in Zimbabwe dollars rendering further non-viability of our enterprises,” Dune said.
Shadreck Makombe, the president of the Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe warned that farmers would reduce the area under crop. “It (exorbitant input prices) is also killing their business because very few farmers are going to purchase whatever is on supply because farmers don’t have much money. It’s quite an exploitative way of doing business,” Makombe said.
He added: “Unfortunately for farmers definitely the hectarage will be reduced.”
Makombe said the only way to stop the exorbitant pricing was for farmers to band together under their respective unions and import their inputs directly.
