Cde Davis Marapira
From George Maponga in Masvingo
Government has announced plans to install maize dryer machines at all Grain Marketing Board depots countrywide following reports grain was being rejected for mositure content in excess of the accepted 12,5 percent threshold leaving farmers at the mercy of unscrupulous dealers.
A two-tier market system has emerged outside GMB depots countrywide where cash-rich buyers are buying the rejected grain for as little as $150 before re-selling it to the GMB for $390 per tonne.
Some of the grain was produced under Government’s Command Agriculture programme and the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme.
The Command Agriculture Programme, the brain child of First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe, was adopted by Cabinet and President Mugabe assigned Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to supervise the programme which has been a huge success.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development responsible for Cropping, Davis Marapira, yesterday said they were looking for funds to procure the dryers.
“We are looking for funds so that we can install maize dryers at all GMB depots and sub-depots acround the country. I do not have the total amount of money required for the exercise by we hope to have the dryers as short to medium term solution to the problem of maize delivered by farmers at depots with high moisture content,’’ he said.
“At the moment we also cannot reveal the exact number of GMB depots and sub-depots that will have these maize dryers because new depots and sub-depots keep on being opened everyday but we want all the depots to have these dryers.”
He said Government lacked the capacity to stop middlemen from ripping off farmers as the country did not have a Statutory Instrument to that effect.
“What we can only do is to discourage farmers from selling their maize and wait for it to attain the required moisture levels before selling it to GMB,’’ he said.
Deputy Minister Marapira said farmers must be patient.
“Our farmers should be patient with their maize because they will lose out. Those who want to expedite drying of their maize should rather buy polythene otherwise there is no point in removing the crop from the field if one does not have adequate storage,’’ he said.
“For those farmers who benefited under the Command Agriculture Scheme, there is no need for them to hurriedly sell their maize because Government gave them everything for their farming activities so they must wait for the right time to sell their maize to GMB and repay what they owe the state.”
Middlemen are also fleecing communal farmers who realised bumper maize yields.
They are buying a tonne for $120.