Minister Mupfumira
Walter Nyamukondiwa Chinhoyi Bureau
Government is finalising a coupon system to be used in the distribution of inputs to vulnerable communities and A1 farmers under the Presidential and Vulnerable Input schemes.
The programme is expected to be rolled out within the next fortnight as Government seeks to ensure household food sufficiency and provide all inputs before the onset of the rains.
Last week, Government announced that inputs for the Command Agriculture and Presidential Inputs Support Scheme are ready for collection from various suppliers across the country as Government mobilises more inputs in partnership with the private sector for the 2016-17 farming season.
The inputs are expected to reach farmers countrywide by October 7.
Addressing people gathered for the handover of assistance to the Kore family that lost three members to a veld fire last week, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Cde Prisca Mupfumira said the coupons will be ready by October 15.
“We cannot continue to buy maize from neighbouring countries when we have farmers. Government is coming up with interventions to address that including Command Agriculture,” she said.
“Things were not going on well for us in recent years considering the drought. At the household level, we have the Presidential and Vulnerable Scheme where we shall give out vouchers for each family so that people can get enough to eat and sell to the Grain Marketing Board if they get a surplus.”
Families will get a bag of maize seed, ammonium and top dressing fertilisers under the scheme.
She said Government, through her ministry, will ensure that the inputs will be accessible in time unlike in previous years.
“We are preparing coupons and currently some of them are ready so we are promising that by October 15 they will ready,” she said.
Cde Mupfumira said the inputs should be accessed by the aged, child-headed families and the disabled, but warned against corruption and nepotism in the selection of beneficiaries.
The programme will also benefit A1 and communal farmers.
She said fertilisers are already stocked at some GMB depots.
The development comes at a time when Government says it has secured nearly $500 million for this summer cropping season with an equal amount expected in the coming days.
Minister Mupfumira said people should be properly registered so that beneficiaries are known.
She said if implemented well, the country will not have any reason to import maize to feed the country as prospects for a better season with normal to above normal rainfall has been forecast.
It could not be immediately established how many people will benefit under the programme. The inputs include seed, fuel and fertiliser among others that are coming in a three-tier scheme. The first two schemes are the irrigated and non-irrigated components of Government’s Special Maize Programme.
The third component is the Presidential Inputs Scheme covering A1 and communal farmers.
Under the programme, farmers have been signing performance contracts, initially for three consecutive growing seasons, commencing with the 2016-17 summer season, and will receive support covering maize seed, fertilisers and tillage.
The programme will cost approximately $516 million for the initial three years.
Key expenditures relate to inputs and labour, including harvesting costs, land preparation and transport expenses.