Livingstone Marufu
PREPARATIONS for the 2016/2017 summer cropping season received a major boost with Government introducing subsidised inputs to ensure food security.

This comes after a bad cropping season blighted by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which causes severe drought.

Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister Davis Marapira said Government had come up with a raft of measures to improve output. Among them are financing, marketing of produce and timeous payments to farmers.

Some of the subsidised inputs include fertilisers, which will be sold for US$20 down from around US$27 per 50kg bag, and maize seed, which has been slashed from about US$29 for 10kg to US$20.

Deputy Minister Marapira said, “We are going to subsidise the inputs to make them easily accessible to the farmers as we move to create an enabling environment for farmers to succeed. Government will also be playing a facilitator’s role in mobilising other resources from private sources in support of agriculture.

“As of last week, we toured maize, potato, tobacco seed companies and all fertiliser companies to assess their capacity to supply the local market.

“Treasury has so far released over US$40 million to the GMB (Grain Marketing Board) to ensure farmers receive payments early so that they can buy inputs in time before the summer season kicks off.”

He said forecasts for the 2016/2017 season indicated normal to above normal rainfall due to the La Nina phenomenon, which usually follows El Nino.

Further, he said farmers with 99-year leases could apply for financing as those documents were now bankable.

If availed on time, such funding will enable farmers to produce over two million tonnes of cereals needed for human and livestock consumption as well as over 220 million kg of tobacco — the highest figure recorded by farmers in the 1999-2000 season.

Deputy Minister Marapira urged farmers to fully utilise irrigation equipment supplied by Brazil for early planting and during the mid-January dry spell.

Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week introduced command agriculture to shore up maize production.

Under the programme, Government will identify farms to produce maize for the next three years. Command agriculture’s major target is to reduce grain imports and improve food security.

Government says it will finance seed, chemicals, tractors and irrigation on a cost recovery basis.

The Agriculture Ministry is drilling communal boreholes in rural areas. To date, with 10 000 have been sunk and 4 000 repaired.