Biti should not be forced to prioritise agriculture

inputs and to pay farmers for the maize they sold to the Grain Marketing Board.
Part of the US$40 million that Cabinet ordered the minister to release, we are told, has been given to the GMB, which has promised to start paying farmers.

GMB general manager Albert Mandizha confirmed at the weekend that Treasury had released US$10 million, which although still falling short of payment obligations, should go someway towards alleviating the sad plight of farmers.
Many farmers have gone for months without being paid for the maize they sold to the GMB and with the rains showing signs of falling any time soon panic has set in among the farmers.
We find the minister’s attitude towards the issue of food security very appalling.

You do not need an ultimatum to appreciate the importance of encouraging production.
Even in his budget statement, Minister Biti acknowledged agriculture as the driver of economic growth, contributing 33 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
It then leaves one wondering why the minister would not want to fund the economy’s cash cow. We all want to see agriculture performing to the levels that would allow us to export the surplus and earn the much-needed foreign currency.

That can only happen if the Ministry of Finance prioritises the paying of farmers. Farmers need to be paid so they are able to go back to farming and surely the importance of the agriculture sector does not need a Cabinet directive for Minister Biti to appreciate its significance.
We can only encourage the growing of maize, Zimbabwe’s staple food, by ensuring that farmers are paid their money on time and that they have adequate time to mobilise their inputs in preparation for the season.
Minister Biti’s actions can only serve one purpose – that of discouraging farmers to grow maize – and that means reliance on imports and consequently the ballooning of the import bill, a scenario our economy, which has been constrained for a long time does not need at the moment.

We should be doing everything possible to come up with policies that promote growth in all the economic spheres. We fail to understand why the Government finds it hard to pay maize farmers when the majority of them are paid only once a year.

This is why some people now strongly think we messed up by allocating the Finance Ministry to the erstwhile opposition. The MDC-T is opposed to land reform and would celebrate if the agriculture sector collapses. No wonder Biti seems unmoved when it comes to releasing money towards paying farmers.

Now we have most farmers unsure of continuing with maize production and already we hear the number of farmers who have registered to grow tobacco this season has increased, as farmers shift to the more lucrative crop.

We need farmers to go back to the land and produce maize but they can only do that if there is assurance they will be rewarded for their sweat without delays, as is the case at the moment. Maize may not be one of the highly paying crop but still farmers need to be paid their money within reasonable time so that they can plan.

It must be acknowledged that matters of food security have a serious bearing on national security and must thus be handled with due care.
Through their efforts, farmers every year contribute to the strategic grain reserve, which should, at any given time hold 500 000 tonnes of maize in pyhsical stock.

We do not want to see farmers opting out of maize production because of reasons connected to payment delays. The effect of such an action by farmers would mean an additional cost to the fiscus, as we would be forced to import to replenish the Strategic Grain Reserve.