The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo Senior Farming Reporter
THE Government has suspended the importation of all agricultural produce and cancelled all existing import permits, in a development meant to promote local farmers, a senior Government official said. Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister Davis Marapira who is responsible for crop production and irrigation development confirmed that Government had banned the importation of most crop produce serve for strategic cereals, which are of paramount importance to the country’s food security.
He said this on the sidelines of the official commissioning of the 45-hectare, Pollards Irrigation scheme in Bubi district, Matabeleland North Province by the Acting President Phelekezela Mphoko on Friday.
He said the ministry has forthwith stopped issuing permits for the movement of selected agricultural produce.
The decision to ban the importation of crop produce was unanimously agreed at a Cabinet meeting two weeks ago.
Farmers have for some time complained that cheap imported produce is flooding the local market and negatively affecting their operations.
“Government has banned any crop produce, which was not necessary to import, these are the likes of onion, tomatoes, potatoes and some fruits. We are however, still importing cereals such as maize, wheat and rice and other raw materials which are necessary such as soya beans and cotton cake, which are used for the manufacturing of cooking oil.
“The Cabinet did a noble thing by banning the importation of unnecessary farm produce which our farmers can produce, we only need that which meets the basic needs of our people and that’s an advantage to local farmers as that will enable them to boost production,” said Dep Minister.
He said the move to ban agricultural produce imports would go a long way towards eliminating unscrupulous middlemen who were clandestinely enriching themselves through moving cheap goods from neighbouring countries, mostly South Africa and Botswana.
“Importing is just the same as throwing away our monies and it will mean we won’t even meet the employment target we have set as a country but we will be busy creating jobs in other countries.
Through imports we were enabling middlemen to work and enrich themselves instead of the actual producers and these don’t care if it affects the economic and social aspect of the country,” Dep Minister Marapira said.
He said the Government has lined up a number of programmes aimed at boosting productivity in the agricultural sector.
“We have managed to bring in a lot of irrigation equipment and a lot more is coming from India and Belarus and it’s not only irrigation equipment but including other mechanised machinery and all this is being done to boost production.
“We intend to assist farmers including communal farmers with irrigation inputs and they should be now be able to stand on their own and not rely on free handout. The President said he wants to see all water bodies in the country being utilised for irrigation and that will definitely see improved agricultural productivity,” Dep Minister Marapira said.
The inputs to be acquired by Government from India and Belarus include the Centre Pivot irrigation system equipment for use by small holder farmers as well as various farming equipment.
“We intend to have all irrigation schemes in the country being managed by a proper resident manager because as it is not more than 10 percent of the communal irrigation schemes are viable this is largely due to lack of requisite skills and knowledge.
“Temporarily we have Agritex (Department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services) officers managing the schemes and we have insisted that all of them should undergo training so as to be equipped with the know-how of running an irrigation scheme,” said Dep Minister Marapira.
He said the country has about 150 000 hectares under irrigation with the potential of producing not less than 1,5 million tonnes of maize.
