The Sunday News
FARMERS in the country’s natural region 4 and 5 who gave heed to calls by the Government to grow small grain crops, got a bumper harvest this year and plans are under way to bring the Grain Marketing Board depots to their door steps, it has been learnt. The initiative will be a direct response to the farmers’ calls for Government to provide them with somewhere to sell the abundant small grains freely and at a fair price.
In an interview with the Sunday Business recently, the Provincial Minister of State for Masvingo Province, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, said farmers in the natural regions 4 and 5 of the country that encompasses Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland provinces who grew small grain crops such as millet, sorghum and rapoko got a very good harvest this year courtesy of the good above normal rains that the country received.
He said in light of the bumper harvest that the farmers got, they had engaged the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Dr Joseph Made, so that mobile GMB depots could be provided in the provinces.
“We are quite happy that the farmers in the low rainfall provinces have finally given heed to the calls by Government to grow small grain crops. The idea at first received no takers as they were a bit resistant, they wanted to grow maize but the yields have over the years been very low and discouraging.
“They then slowly began to embrace the idea and this year it did them wonders. Even those who grew maize were not disappointed, much so because of the above normal rainfall that we received as a country,” he said.
Minister Bhasikiti said he was working together with Dr Made to ensure that mobile GMB depots were deployed in the provinces so that the farmers sell their produce without having the problems of transport and being cheated in the pricing.
“We heard the concerns of our farmers especially those who grew small grain crops. We are a Government of the people and we are happy that the land that we gave to the communities is being put under full utilisation. We are therefore going to ensure there are no hurdles in the selling of the surplus produce.
“The need to ensure food security falls not only in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) but is also carried in the spirit of Zim Asset. As Government, we are going to make sure that our farmers do not carry the burden and costs of transporting their produce. And by the initiative we will also encourage farmers to sell to the Government.”
He said in Masvingo, small grain crops were concentrated in Mwenezi, Chiredzi and Chivi districts with some of the districts having little of the crops.
Some of the farmers who spoke to Sunday Business expressed concern over the lack of ready markets for small grain crops saying that explained why they were reluctant to grow the crops on a large scale.
They also said their lack of interest was due to maize being the staple food.
“I just decided to give it a try this year and I realised I was missing out. The problem of millet is however that it requires to be guarded against birds at its early stage and that means some children would skip lessons which is not good.
“I am happy though that I have got the bumper harvest and I will continue growing it. I am not very sure of the prices that it is bought for but the harvest is too good that I have no option but to sell some,” said Mr Tichagwa Moyo of Mwenezi.
Efforts to get a comment from Dr Made on the prices of small grain crops and on how far they were with the mobile GMB depots were fruitless.
