‘Drought-stricken villagers getting rotten maize from GMB’
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012 18:02
Wongai Zhangazha
THE Grain Marketing Board (GMB) is facing accusations by a civil society
monitoring organisation of distributing rotten maize to villagers hard-hit
by drought mainly in Chinhoyi, Mhangura and Banket.
A recent report released for the period January to March 2012 by Civil
Society Monitoring Mechanism (Cisomm), a group of non-governmental
organisations dedicated to monitoring and evaluating implementation of the
Global Political Agreement, said although the humanitarian situation in the
country had stabilised, there were key vulnerabilities that still need to be
addressed.
“Villagers in Chinhoyi, Mhangura and Banket, who are going through a lean
spell, have found themselves the unfortunate recipients of the maize which
the GMB said in November had deteriorated due to poor storage at its 44
depots and silos,” reads the report.
The dry, damaged maize classified as “top grade” and bought at US$285 per
tonne last year has been written off and is now being sold as stock feed to
cattle farmers at an average price of US$175 a tonne, the report further
says.