The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo Farming Reporter
AT least 70 percent of farmers who planted cereals during the 2013/14 farming season are guaranteed adequate food at household level, a senior Government official has said.The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development responsible for crops and irrigation development, Cde Davis Marapira, said most of the farmers in all the country’s provinces were assured of obtaining optimum yields.
“This year most of the people are assured of adequate household security. According to our first crop assessment about 70 percent of the farmers are assured of buttressing their food security but will have little surplus for sale.
“At the moment I can’t pre-empt quantities farmers will avail for sale to the Grain Marketing Board but as Government our first priority is to ensure that the majority of the people have food from their harvest. The second assessment will look at the surplus to be directed to the national reserves,” Dep Minister Marapira said.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Mr Wonder Chabikwa said most farmers who benefited under the Presidential Input Scheme were likely to obtain optimum crop yields.
Through the Presidential Input Scheme farmers received 10 kilogrammes of seed maize, 50kg compound D, 50kg ammonium nitrate and 50kg lime fertilisers.
The scheme was in its sixth year running since 2008, when President Mugabe started assisting farmers with crop and livestock inputs following the collapse of financial schemes for smallholder and communal farmers, owing to illegal economic sanctions imposed by Western countries.
In previous years, farmers were not adequately supported, making it difficult for them to secure inputs on time.
“Those who got inputs through the Presidential Inputs Scheme are likely to improve their yield as compared to last year largely due to the good rains that were received during the season. For example someone who managed to harvest two tonnes the previous season is likely to achieve even five this time around.
“However, the situation is a bit different for those that didn’t benefit from the inputs scheme and to make it worse the major cereal growing areas didn’t receive much towards the end of the rain season thus their anticipated yield will be affected,” Mr Chabikwa said.
He said there was a need for Government to continuously support smallholder farmers since their contribution to the country’s food reserves was significant.
“It is of paramount importance for Government to continue supporting smallholder farmers as these have since the 1980s contributed about 70 percent to the country’s strategic grain reserves and the fact that there are now more farmers owing to the land reform programme means the contribution will be even more,” Mr Chabikwa said.
He said farmers were expecting to harvest 1,2 million tonnes, the same average the country needs per year to meet its requirements.
