Farmers continue to snub GMB

Tinomuda Chakanyuka and Munyaradzi Musiiwa Sunday News Reporters
FARMERS in most parts of the country continue to shun selling their maize to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) owing to delays in payment for grain deliveries, a development that has left some of the parastatal’s depots running thin on grain, exposing thousands to possible food shortages. GMB depots in Zvishavane, Mberengwa and Kwekwe districts in the Midlands province have reportedly gone critically low on grain stocks.

Some farmers who spoke to Sunday News last week decried the delays in payment for grain deliveries which they said affected their business as they did not have money to buy inputs for the next farming season.

Mr Owen Nyoni, a farmer based in Insiza district in Matabeleland South province, said he had not received payment for his 10 tonnes of maize since July last year.
He said efforts to either get his payment or recover his grain had not been fruitful.

“I keep being referred from one office to the other and it’s frustrating. My neighbours who sold their grain to private buyers are now laughing at me because I chose to be law abiding and patriotic.

“Imagine that it has been a year since I delivered my maize to GMB and I have not received a penny. I did not produce anything in the just ended farming season because I did not have money to buy inputs and if they don’t pay me I might again fail to prepare for the next farming season,” said a distraught Mr Nyoni.

Mr Nyoni said he and other farmers from the area were now contemplating not selling their maize to GMB in the coming season after getting a raw deal from the parastatal.
He questioned the logic by Government to procure maize from Zambia yet it was failing to pay local farmers for the grain they would have supplied.

Midlands GMB manager Mrs Podiso Mafa told our Midlands correspondent that the granary was almost dry as farmers were still withholding their produce from 2014-15 summer cropping season owing to failure by the board to pay farmers on time.

She said GMB was struggling to meet the province’s monthly maize demand after receiving grain that could only sustain the province for less than two months in the harvest for the 2014-15 summer cropping season.

Mrs Mafa said GMB had received 24 000 tonnes of maize this year, most of which came from smallholder and communal farmers while a small fraction came from A2 farmers.
She said GMB was left with only 10 000 tonnes against the province’s monthly demand of 13 000 tonnes a month.

“We received 24 000 metric tonnes of maize this year in the harvest for the 2014-2015 summer cropping season. Most of the grain that we have came from smallholder and communal farmers. Farmers are snubbing us because we delayed in paying for the deliveries they made last year.

“We have about 10 000 metric tonnes of maize in the granary and it can only sustain the province for less than a month because we have a monthly maize demand of 13 000 metric tonnes.

“There are districts like Mberengwa, Zvishavane, Kwekwe and part of Gweru that are in need of grain,” she said.
As of last year, GMB owed farmers $37 million.

GMB acting general manager Mr Lawrence Jasi, however, said it was not true that some of the parastatal’s depots were running out of grain, insisting that the country’s granary had enough stocks of maize.

“It’s not correct. I was in some of these areas that you are talking about and I never witnessed any depleted stocks of maize. We have enough maize in our stocks. You can travel there and see for yourself,” he said.

On the delays in paying farmers for their maize, Mr Jasi said he had no capacity to comment on the matter.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Responsible for Cropping, Cde Davis Marapira could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone went unanswered yesterday.

GMB is now requesting farmers to sign contracts in which it was promising to pay them within 90 days after receiving their produce.
According to the contract, farmers are free to take their maize from GMB depots and sell it to private buyers if GMB fails to pay within the agreed three months.
Government has been importing maize from various countries due to poor crop harvests attributed to poor rains.