LIVINGSTONE MARUFU/ CHENGETAI ZVAUYA
Government has released ZWL$60bn for grain procurement from farmers across the country ahead of the selling season which kicks off next month, a parliamentary portfolio committee heard yesterday.
Grain Marketing Board (GMB) chief executive officer, Rockie Mutenha, told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, that GMB was ready to buy grain from 87 depots.
The committee is chaired by Gokwe Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena.
Zimbabwe is expecting a bumper harvest this year.
“The Treasury has made a commitment of ZWL$60bn towards the purchasing of grain in all the depots and payment be done within 72 hours or the latest being paid within seven days,” Mutenha said.
“We are going to make electronic payments at various depots where we make an online payment to our farmers.”
He said payment would be made through bank transfers and mobile money platforms and farmer card wallet.”
Mutenha said the price of maize has been pegged at ZWL$32 000 per metric tonne, soya beans pegged at ZWL$48,000 and traditional grains at ZWL$38,000 per metric tonne.
GMB has also increased collection points to ensure farmers had no challenges in delivering maize.
Mutenha said GMB was moving to ensure that there is a collection point in every ward to decongest main depots.
The whole purpose of paying within the shortest possible time was to ensure farmers can utilise their money while it still has value, Mutenha said.
However, some lawmakers argued that the payment of maize in local currency will encourage side-marketing as vultures will offer farmers United States dollars.
The marketing board is going to distribute some moisture test instruments to ensure the farmers will bring maize with adequate moisture content of around 12.5%.
In a scenario where a farmer delivers maize with high moisture content, GMB has procured over 20 dryers to dry maize to the required moisture content.
Mutenha said seven dryers were already in the country with 13 dryers procured from Italy expected to land at any time.
He said the farmers will pay for using the dryers including the personnel that operates them.
The government has also helped in the construction of hard surface storage facilities in case the main silos are full.
GMB has begun sprucing silos around the country with some expected to be completed by mid-March while others are expected to be completed by end of April.
“Despite the revamping of the silos around the country, the grain marketing board is ready to receive grain at any given moment from now. The processes may continue taking place while we receive the grain from farmers,” Mutenha said.
The country’s grain requirement stands at two million metric tonnes and the GMB is confident that the country will surpass that figure.
