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Small grains farmer Mrs Liana Ncube (right) inspects her crop in Umzingwane District while the Agritex officer for the area Mr Thobizitha Ngwenya looks on in this file photo

Zimbabwe is expecting to harvest four million tonnes of food crops from the 2016/17 cropping season according to the final Government sponsored crop and livestock assessment report. This means that the country will have a surplus of one million tonnes of food crops.

The food crops include maize, sorghum, millet, roundnuts, groundnuts, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, cowpeas, sugar beans and pumpkins. The increase in food production has been attributed to the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme and the Command Agriculture programme.

Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made said the country will this year realise a surplus in most crops. He said maize expected this year is about 2,1 million tonnes representing an increase of about 300 percent compared to the 800 000 tonnes harvested during the 2015/16 agricultural season.

Dr Made said total harvest of maize and small grains expected this year is more than 2,5 million tonnes against human consumption of 1,5 million tonnes per year.

What is encouraging is that communal farmers are leading in maize production thereby guaranteeing most households food security. The communal farmers’ maize output increased by a massive 364 percent. The farmers who last year produced about 166 000 tonnes of maize, are this year expected to harvest more than 770 000 tones.

The A1, A2 farmers, old resettlement sector farmers as well as small scale commercial farmers, all increased maize production this year. The expected bumper harvest has prompted Government to re-introduce marketing boards to assist farmers to market their produce.

Most provinces including those provinces which usually record low yields due to marginal rainfall such as Midlands, Matabeleland North and South as well as Masvingo are also expecting a surplus this year.

Farmers who worked very hard to increase production in the 2016/17 agricultural season might not enjoy the fruits of their sweat unless Government addresses the issue of moisture content which has seen the Grain Marketing Board rejecting maize delivered to its depots throughout the country.

Maize with moisture content in excess of 12,5 percent is being rejected forcing farmers to sell the rejected maize at a song at the black market. Farmers are supposed to take the maize back home to allow it to dry but most opt to sell it to middlemen who are paying for as little as $150 per tonne yet Government has pegged the producer price at $390 per tonne.

The farmers whose maize is rejected are supposed to pay for three trips to bring it back to the GMB hence most are selling it to middlemen to cut on transport costs. The obtaining situation is a serious threat to the Command Agriculture programme as many of the farmers that benefited from the programme might fail to pay for the inputs they received. Farmers contracted under Command Agriculture are expected to pay for the inputs from part of their produce through a stop order facility after delivering their maize to the GMB.

There is therefore an urgent need to address this moisture content challenge so that farmers sell their maize to the GMB. Farmers on their part should take samples of their harvested maize to the GMB to check on moisture content before contracting transporters to deliver the produce to depots. In the event of the farmer delivering maize with high moisture content, the GMB should use dryers to reduce the moisture content instead of rejecting the maize.

We want to once again implore Government to put in place measures to protect farmers against unscrupulous middlemen that are fleecing them by paying very little for their produce which they later sell at huge profits to the GMB.