Zim farmers deliver grain to GMB

Zim farmers deliver grain to GMB
Published: 23 July 2017
Over 1 000 tonnes of maize from the 2016/17 agricultural season had been delivered to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) by April this year, the state's grain procurer said.

Speaking at the maize value chain conference in Harare held in the same month, GMB acting GM Lawrence Jasi said harvesting of crops under the 2016/2017 agriculture season began in April and farmers under command agriculture had started deliveries to GMB.

"Farmers started deliveries for maize for the 2016/2017 agriculture season on the 1st of April 2017," he said.

Command agriculture was launched last year under a $500 million fund.

Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the government was buying the maize at $390 per tonne, which was above international prices.

"With regards to the maize harvest for 2016/2017 agriculture season, government has made sure that storage facilities of up to four million tonnes are made available, as well as dryers to reduce maize moisture content to acceptable levels, to free the land for winter crops," he said.

Mnangagwa said funds had been secured to pay farmers for their produce, buoyed by these successes.

He said the government intended to extend command agriculture to livestock, and cotton, soya beans, wheat and other high value crops capable of earning the country foreign currency.

"Preparations for winter wheat are now in full swing," he said.

Mnangagwa said the important lesson emerging from the 2016/2017 summer agriculture season was that there was need to maximise on the distribution of inputs for the 2017/2018 season so that by August 2017, all farmers participating in command agriculture, presidential input scheme and any other organised support programmes would have acquired inputs.

The country is expecting a harvest of 2,1 million tonnes of maize for the 2016/2017 agriculture season.
- the standard
Tags: Farmers, GMB,

Comments

Latest News

Latest Published Reports

Latest jobs