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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
GOVERNMENT has directed the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) to ensure farmers are paid within seven days of delivering their produce to the marketing depot.

Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement Minister Retirerd Air Marshal Perrance Shiri said this during a ZBCtv’s Agro-business Forum programme.

“We would want to provide the best service for our client who are the farmers. And to that extent, we had a meeting with GMB, which falls under my Ministry and the Ministry of Finance and we agreed that any farmer who delivers produce to GMB, should be paid within seven days, so that’s a legitimate expectation by any farmer,” he said.

The latest development is a relief to the farmers who have in the past decried delayed payment of the grain at GMB depots saying this was hampering their preparations for the upcoming farming seasons.

Farmers have also complained that delays in payments affected them as input prices were always shooting up due to inflationary pressures.

Minister Shiri said: “If it (payment within seven days of delivery) doesn’t happen then, they have to start raising eyebrows.

“They have to bring that to our attention so that we can crack the whip and GMB will have to perform as agreed by the two ministries.”

Meanwhile, the 2019/20 cropping season hectarage for maize suffered a five percent decline to around 1,5 million hectares from the 1,6 million planted in the 2018/19 season, while the area under traditional grains increased significantly countrywide.

According to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement’s first crop and livestock assessment report for 2019/2020 season, there was an increase in the area put under sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet.

The area put under rice also increased by 52 percent. The report states that 1 549 324ha were put under maize, marking a decline from the 1 623 757ha that were put under the same crop during the 2018/19 season.

A total of 652 008ha were planted in November, 606 124ha in December and 291 192ha were planted in January.

About 106 520ha of maize were written off because of the dry spell.

The area put under sorghum increased by 52 percent from 201 065ha last season to 305 865 ha this season, while pearl millet increased from 151 708ha to 166 429ha during this season.

Finger millet increased by 37 percent from 25 146ha to 34 353ha.

The report also shows that the area planted on cowpeas increased by 13 percent from 53 917 to 60 799ha during this season.Government has been promoting production of traditional grains across the country as they perform better even under dry conditions.

To boost production, the Grain Marketing Board has been buying traditional grains at about the same price as maize.

Recently, Government announced a producer price of $12 865 per tonne for traditional grains, a price that is slightly higher than the $12 329 offered for maize. — @okazunga