Dr Made
Primrose Nyanzero Herald Reporter
Government has warned farmers and trade unions to desist from interfering with State input support programmes. Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made said this at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Zimbabwe National Farmers Union in Harare last Friday. The AGM ran under the theme; “Agricultural Innovation in a Dynamic Environment”.
Dr Made advised institutions to stick to their rightful duties and provide technical support to farmers, instead of interfering in the administration of Government inputs. He was referring to the disbursement of farming inputs under the Presidential Well Wishers Agriculture Inputs Scheme, which is set to benefit 1,8 million households for the 2017/ 2018 agricultural season.
“I emphasise the fact that the households are 1,8 million; no one should interfere in these households getting inputs and I indicated that there will be separation of division of labour,” said Dr Made.
“The extension worker must be waiting in the fields to teach the farmer how to plant, how to scout, how to do the husbandry activity, while the Grain Marketing Board or the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) must deal with distributing the inputs so that we reduce the chain of command and interference, so that each household gets the inputs as directed by His Excellency, President Mugabe.
“Please, do not interfere in a programme that you are not assigned to carry out.”
“Distribution of the inputs for the Presidential Well Wishers Agriculture Inputs Scheme has already started across the country,” he said.
“Each farmer should receive the inputs on his own behalf because we have already calculated that there are 1,8 million households, so no one should speak on behalf of another,” said Dr Made.
“We did not leave out anyone.”