Chronicle Editor
Sikhulekelani Moyo, [email protected]
THE Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) has urged seed companies, suppliers, and distributors to reconsider the pricing of agricultural inputs to promote sustainable farming practices.
As farmers gear up for the 2024/2025 farming season following a positive meteorological forecast released during the 29th Southern Africa Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF-29) in August, the ZFU has called for an end to profiteering in the agricultural supply chain.
The Government has already started distributing inputs to Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots throughout Zimbabwe, while farmers prepare their lands eagerly for the upcoming season.
In an interview during the ZFU 84th Congress in Bulawayo, ZFU secretary-general, Mr Paul Zakariya, denounced the private sector for raising input prices even in US dollars.
Such pricing practices make it increasingly difficult for farmers to obtain quality inputs, including fertilisers, chemicals, and seeds.
“We are worried about the uncontrollable, insatiable appetite by the private sector to increase prices even in US dollars. This is untenable and speaks to lack of viability on the part of growers,” said Mr Zakariya.
“Growers have control over a few things, which include their efficiencies trying to lower their cost of production and improve their yields and it’s the markets that they don’t have control over, so we need to make sure that the grower is viable, while they can do what they can do.
“We need to control things so that producer prices don’t remain depressed while input prices continue to skyrocket. There is no rocket science there; anything in that kind of situation presents serious losses to the farmer. We need to also look at our private sector being more reasonable morally as well as stopping profiteering tendencies otherwise we’re destroying ourselves and it’s a huge threat to food security going forward,” he said.
In a snap survey done by Business Chronicle in Bulawayo yesterday, some agriculture input suppliers were selling a 10kg bag of maize seed for between US$24 and US$45, depending on varieties and producers.
A 50kg bag of ammonium nitrate fertiliser was going for US$34, compound D US$30, and calcium nitrate was US$39.
Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister, Dr Anxious Masuka, during the same event, Deputy Minister Vangelis Haritatos said the Government took a deliberate stance to crowd in the participation of banks and private sector institutions to fund agricultural production using various models, including the Contract Farming and Joint Ventures Frameworks.
He said CBZ-Agro-Yield and AFC Land Bank, who are funding summer production under the National Enhanced Agricultural Productivity Scheme (NEAPS), are contracting a total of 55 000 hectares in summer cereals.
“In 2022, the Food Crop Contractors Association (FCCA), which is a consortium of private sector off-takers of agricultural commodities, was created to support local production. FCCA supported on a grand scale in the 2023/24 summer production and the current 2024/2025 summer cropping season targeting maize and soya bean production,” he said.
“The consortium pledged to contract a total of 97 000ha, comprising 45 000ha of maize, 40 000ha of soya beans and 12 000ha of sorghum.”-@SikhulekelaniM1
Online Reporter