The Sunday News
Harare Bureau
Government is closing in on its target to finish distributing agricultural inputs under the Climate-Proofed Presidential Inputs Scheme for the 2020/2021 summer cropping season by next week, as 1,4 million households have since received their allocations.
The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) will this week expedite allocations to the outstanding 400 000 households.
Over 1,8 million farmers, who were trained under the Pfumvudza Conservation Agriculture Programme, will receive an inputs package of maize, traditional grains, soya seed and fertilisers.
By Friday, 9 261 tonnes of seed had been handed over to farmers, with maize seed accounting for 7 463 tonnes, while 1 120 tonnes of soya seed had been distributed, with traditional grains seed making up the rest.
In addition, 74 606 tonnes of fertiliser, including 48 770 tonnes of Compound D, 13 153 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate and 12 683 tonnes of lime, had been released to farmers.
Agricultural Technical and Extension Services (Agritex) acting director Mr Stancilae Tapererwa said training of farmers was being finalised, with 1,4 households having completed training as of last week.
“Preparations for the coming season are at an advanced stage. Our target is to train 1,8 million households under the Pfumvudza scheme. As of last week, we had trained 1,4 million households and these are the farmers who have received inputs.”
However, personnel shortages at Agritex had slowed training of farmers in the Matabeleland provinces.
“We might be pulled back by Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South as they are facing staff shortages, but that is being attended to,” he said.
Farmers are expected to complete planting by the third week of December. It is forecast that most parts of the country would have received rains by then.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) executive director Mr Paul Zakariya said this year’s preparations, which kicked off in April, were unprecedented.
“Government’s efforts towards agricultural recovery are well appreciated. Preparations for this season in the smallholder sector started way back in April/May with the mobilisation of farmers for the Climate-Proofed Pfumvudza Programme. We understand that distribution of inputs is still in progress to cover the remaining households. The ZFU is encouraging its members under this category to take full advantage of this promising season.”
