Lack of Capital Derailing Zimbabwe’s Attempts to Revive Wheat Farming
29 June 2012
Gibbs Dube | Washington
Zimbabwe’s parliamentary agriculture committee says lack of state funding
and serious power outages are hampering efforts to boost wheat production
amid revelations government is spending millions of dollars on cereal
imports for domestic consumption.
Reacting to reports that the government has so far spent almost $27 million
this year on wheat imports instead of funding winter wheat production, some
members of the committee told Studio 7 that most farmers are not accessing
capital to buy the necessary inputs.
Committee member Moses Jiri said Zimbabwe’s failure to release $20 million
which was set aside this year for wheat production also indicates that the
government wants to import cheap wheat at the expense of local producers.
Indications are that farmers have so far only cultivated 10,000 hectares of
wheat instead of the projected 26,000 hectares. The country needs 400,000
tonnes of wheat annually.
Jiri said wheat imports are not even creating jobs in the agriculture
sector. “Importing wheat will not solve serious challenges being faced by
local farmers,” he said.
Independent economist Rejoice Ngwenya believes that government should stop
funding under-performing wheat farmers.