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Maize deliveries to the Grain Marketing Board depots throughout the country have started and many of the depots especially in Mashonaland West and Central provinces are overwhelmed by the number of trucks waiting to deliver the grain. Long queues of trucks have become the order of the day at most depots much to the chagrin of prophets of doom who were claiming that  Government was inflating the figures of the expected bumper harvest.  

The Government’s inputs support scheme through both the Command Agriculture and the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme have proved very effective.

The country is expecting to harvest about 4 million tonnes of food crops and deliveries to GMB depots are confirming this. Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa who is visiting GMB depots across the country on a fact finding mission following reports that GMB workers were rejecting maize for alleged high moisture content, said most depots are overwhelmed by deliveries that have doubled compared to the same period last year.

The GMB, in a bid to cope with increased deliveries, is contemplating introducing a 24-hour shift. Cde Mnangagwa said the congestion at GMB depots was understandable given the volume of deliveries and efforts were therefore underway to ensure farmers do not spend long hours in queues. He said in order to address the moisture content challenge, Government would soon supply dryers at all GMB depots to enable farmers to dry the grain on the spot instead of taking their grain back home.

The Vice President said Government wanted to protect farmers from being ripped off by middlemen who were buying their produce for a song after it had been rejected for high moisture content. He said police should arrest the middlemen who he said were saboteurs of the agriculture revival programme. Cde Mnangagwa who said Government was happy with the success of the Command and Presidential Inputs Support Scheme, said $600 million had already been mobilised for the two schemes’ next summer cropping season.

He said Government had sourced $154 million for the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme and $487 million for Command Agriculture so that more families benefit from the two programmes. Cde Mnangagwa said the funds were coming from Government’s partners and what is left is for farmers to adequately prepare for planting. We have said in the past that inputs for farmers should be delivered early so that farmers can plant with the early rains.

What is encouraging is that Government has been able to moblise the required funding on time and work to source the required inputs should start immediately. Government should engage inputs suppliers so that all the required inputs are delivered before the onset of the rains. Last season at one time suppliers ran out of Ammonium Nitrate fertiliser and this obviously affected yields. The logistics to deliver the inputs should be worked out now so that the inputs are moved quickly to farmers. Collection points for inputs should be as close as possible to farmers to reduce transport costs.

Last season some farmers under Command Agriculture were forced to travel to Harare to collect inputs resulting in them incurring high transport costs.

We want to believe that those involved in facilitating Command Agriculture and the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme identified the shortcomings encountered last season and have found solutions.

The country should record another bumper harvest to enable it to export maize and other crops to neighbouring countries and beyond. The new farmers have demonstrated that they have the capacity to produce if provided with adequate support.

Farmers should just guard against being detracted by enemies of development who always put spanner in the works to confuse the people. Let us once again shame our enemies by producing even more next season and earn the much needed foreign currency.