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castigated the US$30 million input scheme facility that is meant to offset their outstanding payments from the parastatal.
They said they had been promised that their grain deliveries would be swapped with inputs at subsidised rates, which is not prevailing on the ground.
Others said the scheme forced them to take inputs even if they did not need them while others were contemplating waiting for the release of inputs under the US$45 million subsidised and free inputs scheme for the vulnerable.
Under this scheme 500 000 vulnerable farmers, including 100 000 households, would get an input package comprising 10kg maize seed or 5kgs sorghum, a 50kg bag of Compound D fertiliser and a 50kg bag of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for free.
The farmers felt short-changed when they were told that they would be paid by inputs when they expected cash.
“Why should Government plan on our behalf? What if I had already stocked inputs and I am told to get other inputs?
“GMB has failed us and I do not see many farmers delivering their grain to the parastatal next season,” complained a Chiweshe farmer.
Legislators took Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to task during the Prime Minister’s question time in the House of Assembly on Wednesday last week over Government policy with regards to supporting the agricultural sector.
Muzarabani legislator, Cde Edward Raradza (Zanu-PF) said farmers had been promised that the facility would result in them getting inputs at subsidised rates.
“The seed that is coming to the rural areas is not subsidised and people are having to exchange their maize for the seed and fertiliser.
“It did not start here, but this has happened over a period of time and people have been told that the Government will subsidise but these things have not yet come,” he said.
Farmers, he said, were swapping delivered grain with inputs, which are not subsidised thereby defeating the whole purpose of empowering farmers.
Zanu-PF representative for Chivi Central Cde Paul Mangwana also asked PM Tsvangirai Government position on supporting commercial farmers.
“Government has to promote subsidies to the most vulnerable and not to those on the upper echelons of the agriculture sector,” PM Tsvangirai said.
“What commercial agriculture and commercial farmers should do is to open up financing services with commercial banks. Government has adopted a policy to subsidise inputs to small growers because they are in a vulnerable stage,” said PM Tsvangirai.
PM Tsvangirai said commercial farmers could borrow money from banks.
Recently, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the US$30 million input facility targeted farmers that had delivered their grain to GMB who had not yet been paid.
Of the US$30 million, US$10 million was set aside to pay farmers for the grain delivered while the remaining US$20 would be used to procure inputs.
A number of farmers had been arguing that if Government could buy inputs for US$20 million why could it not use the money to pay farmers.
But the Permanent Secretary for Agriculture Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Mr Ngoni Masoka said Government did not pay cash to inputs suppliers of the US$30 million facility but instead made negotiations for staggered payments.
The Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda, said his office had received numerous complaints from farmers over the input facility and told farmers at a gathering in Chiweshe that the issue would be looked into.
Online Reporter