The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) has entered into a deal with a petroleum company for the provision of fuel to its members in a bid to effectively prepare for the cropping season.
ZCFU vice-president Mr Winston Babbage said the union had entered into an agreement with Puma Energy for the provision of coupons to its members to enable them to access fuel at selected service stations across the country.
“The union has struck a deal with Puma, which will enable our members to access fuel. What’s only left is to fine stream this deal so that farmers with these coupons are given first preference at the service stations to ensure that they don’t delay production.
“Farmers in need of fuel are obliged to approach their provincial offices and put forward their requests in terms of the amounts they need.
Thereafter make payment through the union’s merchant account and then come to collect their coupons at a given date,” said Mr Babbage.
He said there was a need for fuel service station attendants to consider giving farmers and other strategic service providers first preference in the allocation of fuel.
“It doesn’t make any sense for farmers with coupons to queue together with the rest of the motorists because the idea behind such a facility (coupon) is more of forward purchasing thus they should be served first. We also face challenges whereby some service stations are denying farmers to fill diesel into their drums, such individuals are simply failing or professing ignorance,” said Mr Babbage.
He said ZCFU was also calling on the Government to expedite the recapitalisation of the District Development Fund (DDF) as it plays a pivotal role in improving productivity at farms and the agricultural sector as a whole.
“As a union we are also calling for the recapitalisation of DDF to enable it to render its services like borehole drilling as well as maintaining road networks, which play a pivotal role in the farming business,” said Mr Babbage.
He said in the wake of the effects of climatic change there was a need for the country to invest in irrigation infrastructure so as to ensure sufficient food security, further urging the Government to repossess unproductive farms, which were acquired during the Land Reform Programme.
“We need irrigations to work full throttle because this is the only way we can be assured of being food self-sufficient as a country, in the wake of the effects of climate change thus the need for irrigating farmers to complement Government’s efforts, which has seen it resuscitating a number of irrigation schemes throughout the country. We are also encouraging farmers that benefited under the Land Reform Programme to productively utilise the resource towards enhancing the country’s agricultural sector, failure to which Government should repossess such farms,” said Mr Babbage.
— @DNsingo
