Chronicle Editor
Vincent Gono, News Editor
THE Government is expediting the movement of the Presidential Inputs Scheme with a target to finish the process by the last week of November to enable farmers to plant in time while expressing disappointment in reports of abuse of the inputs by beneficiaries.
Government has also moved mountains in promoting the fishing industry with plans to set up 35 000 fishponds in 35 000 villages countrywide where boreholes are going to be drilled and nutritional gardens set up in pursuit of the rural industrialisation agenda.
In an interview on the sidelines of a Livestock Disease Management Conference hosted by this publication in Bulawayo on Friday, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Prof Obert Jiri said all farmers were supposed to have received the inputs by the last week of November.
The Government has set aside a combined total of 100 000 tonnes of Compound D fertilizers, 8 000 tonnes of seed maize and 3000 tonnes of small grain crops and has so far moved more than 40 000 tonnes of basal dressing fertilizers, 5 000 tonnes of maize and 1000 tonnes of small grain seeds to farmers in the respective ecological regions.
It is also preparing the movement of ammonium nitrate fertilizers to avoid delays that may affect the expected yields from the 3.5 million targeted farmers benefitting under the Presidential Input Distribution Scheme.
Prof Jiri said the Government was going to speed up the process of moving the inputs to various Grain Marketing Board depots strewn all over the country for onward distribution to farmers.
Prof Jiri said they were so far impressed by the work that they were doing, adding that the only concern was on the reports of abuse of inputs by some beneficiaries and in some cases the officers in charge of distribution. He said the relevant legislation was going to be evoked to deal with the culprits who were bent on derailing the Government’s noble programme of ensuring food security at household and national level.
“We are so far impressed with the distribution. We are however, going to intensify our efforts to ensure we are done with distribution by the last week of November. We are moving a combined total of 100 000 metric tonnes of Compound D fertilisers, 8 000 tonnes of maize and 3 000 tonnes of small grain crops. As you may be aware we did ecological matching where Region 1, 2 and 3 are getting maize seed while Region 4 and 5 are getting small grain seeds. We have so far moved 5000 tonnes of maize which is more than 60 percent while 1000 tonnes of small grain crops have been moved to the various GMB depots. In terms of time frames we actually did better this year compared to last year and our aim is to continue improving,” he said.
He added that the Government was already preparing for the distribution of top dressing fertilizers around the country. Prof Jiri said there was encouraging buy-in from the farmers in Region 4 and 5 to grow small grain crops courtesy of awareness campaigns that were carried out through traditional leaders.
“There are pockets of resistance yes but that is not something to write home about. Otherwise a good number of farmers have understood through experience that certain crops like maize do not do very well in Region 4 and 5 except under irrigation schemes. And besides we have the grain swap programme where farmers are free to swap their crops at GMB but that facility is only for consumption to avoid arbitrage,” he said.
Prof Jiri also touched on the development of the fishing industry in the country saying they were doing dam stocking in the 10 600 water bodies in the country. He also said they were promoting rural industrialisation by encouraging a fish pond in each of the 35 000 villages in the country where boreholes were going to be drilled and nutritional gardens set up.
“We are also setting fish ponds on the 460 irrigation schemes dotted around the country. So, I would say we are in the right path towards promoting the fish industry in the country for our community nutritional needs and our country,” he said.
He said of the 9600 schools around the country, each will have a fish pond for fish farming to enhance nutrition and skills development and assist schools raise funds through selling fish.
Online Reporter