Herald Reporters
THE current global food crisis coming on the backdrop of worsening global warming has made it imperative for Zimbabwe to stop relying on food imports and produce adequately through such schemes as the recently launched Presidential Well-wishers Input Scheme.
The scheme has benefited 560 000 households this season.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made emphasised yesterday that the scheme had come at a time when donor assistance had been drastically slashed with government support also grossly falling inadequate.
“At this point small-scale, old resettlement and communal farmers need schemes that allow them to produce with minimal costs to promote food security starting from the household unit,” he said.
The minister said that if the weather remained favourable, the country would score good yields and boost food security and help to get other sectors of the economy working again. “All the green that you see in the countryside today is a product of the President’s input scheme that enabled farmers to get top dressing fertilizers to counter the heavy rain-induced leaching of nutrients that had started in most parts of the country,” Minister Made said.
Several provincial governors across the country echoed Minister Made’s remarks, saying the scheme was largely credited with creating the vast empire of green crops currently covering both the peri-urban and communal lands.
The governors also concurred that in the absence of adequate funding from the Ministry of Finance, the situation in the agricultural sector had looked very bleak. Most resource-poor farmers were poised to perform dismally, which would grossly compromise food security and economic stability.
“The scheme has helped a lot of farmers who were stranded after failing to mobilise funds to buy seed and fertilisers. Even the crops that were yellowing because of too much rains and lack of fertilizers have since regained their lush green colour,” governor and resident Minister for Mashonaland West Province Cde Faber Chidarikire said.
He said his province had received 700 tonnes of Compound D, 1 405t of Ammonium Nitrate, 600t of Compound L and 612t of maize seed.
Farmers had also received seed for sorghum, cowpeas, millet, sugar beans, cotton and herbicides for the control of weeds in all wards in his province.
Similarly, the governor and resident Minister for Matabeleland South, Cde Angeline Masuku said the scheme had a very positive impact on the crop situation this season. “The scheme helped decentralise input distribution services and made them easily accessible to all farmers from the country’s GMB depots. The inputs were given to everyone regardless of their political affiliations. The President is for every Zimbabwean so we made sure all deserving households got them,” she commented in a telephone interview.
Matabeleland North Governor, Cde Thokozile Mathuthu said the programme had positive impact on many households in her province. “It had a positive impact particularly to the vulnerable families because they managed to get seed, beans and fertiliser,” said Cde Mathuthu.
Mashonaland Central Province Governor and Resident Minister, Martin Dinha described the Presidential Well-Wishers’ scheme as a resounding success that would bring food shortage in that province to an end. “We do not expect any drought relief in the province because the scheme would translate into a bumper harvest. The support even surpassed what we got from the national fiscus through Finance Minister Tendai Biti,” said Cde Biti.
Midlands Provincial Governor and Resident Minister, Cde Jaison Machaya said what made the scheme significant in his province was that they were provided with cottonseed.

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