adminSamuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
THE issuance permits to import cheap farming produce is destroying farming in Zimbabwe as well as breeding corruption, amid revelations by the Central Bank that some unscrupulous elements were abusing the facility to import grain for resale to Grain Marketing Board at a profit. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Dr John Mangudya, said this during his address at the Zimbabwe Farmers Union 75th Annual Congress in Mutare on Wednesday.
The congress theme was: “Value Addition: Foundation for Wealth Creation.”
“We discovered that last week. It is the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development that is issuing the permits. After getting the permits, they import grain at $260 and sell it to GMB for $390 per tonne. It is cheaper to import and sell to GMB than to produce and what this means is that these people will never till their land,’ said Dr Mangudya.
Dr Mangudya said the country was flooded with low-cost imported food products that are pushing the local farm products, produced under high costs, out of the market, thereby destroying the local agriculture sector.
“We do not want those permits. You are destroying the farmer and surprisingly these things are happening under the nose of your unions and you as farmers, are being destroyed while you are quiet. Why are we issuing import licences for the importation of cheap food products like beef, poultry, fruits and dairy,” asked Dr Mangundya.
He said major challenges facing agriculture include lack of entrepreneurship and agricultural literacy, low productivity, lack of competitiveness due to the dollarisation of the economy, lack of access to lines of credit and high cost of loans, lack of product diversification to hedge on price fluctuations, lack of quality statistics, lack of value addition, disruption of the value chain, payment delays by GMB and cheap imported food products.
He said Government would this year support 2 000 serious farmers to grow at least 1, 2million metric tonnes of maize on a commercial scale. “These 2 000 should be serious farmers. They will be funded $80 000 each to grow 100ha of maize at a cost of $800 per hectare of maize. “Our target is to achieve six tonnes per hectare so that we can produce at least 1, 2 million metric tonnes. It is high time we use the ‘use or lose it principle’ because most farmers are not doing the nation justice,” he said.
Dr Mangudya said $500 million had been injected into farming since 2009, adding that to date $90m had been paid for the 2014/15 grain deliveries, leaving a balance of at least $12 million that would be cleared next week. “The $12 million will be cleared by next week. I am saying what I know as the banker of Government,” said Dr Mangudya. He said the Central Bank had promulgated guidelines cushion farmers through the reduction interest on loans.
He said those farmers with a good track record could enjoy an interest rate of six to 10 percent. Dr Mangudya added that capable farmers, blighted by debts, can also benefit under the Zamco fund with the facilitation of their banks.
Online Reporter