daniel chigunwe
Precious Manomano Herald Reporter
Farmers have started delivering this year’s summer harvest to the Grain Marketing Board, and the temporary revision of acceptable moisture content from 12,5 percent to 13,5 percent should help farmers meet that requirement.
Harvesting of summer crops is usually delayed because farmers must reduce the moisture content, and that these days can delay winter wheat planting since farmers usually need to use some of the money they earn from summer crops to support their wheat planting.
In previous seasons farmers delayed delivering the crop to GMB citing problems of high moisture content.
Some even leave the maize in the fields where it is prone to theft and damage by both wild and domestic animals while veld fires also pose a threat. In a notice, GMB operations manager Mr Forward Takaindisa said maize received at a moisture content above 12,5 percent would be stored separately and disposed of urgently to millers for processing while the drier maize could go into longer-term storage.
“In view of the late planting of the summer crop due to late rains and the need to ensure winter wheat production, we recommend early harvesting of maize in order to pave the way for planting of wheat on time. The weight of all maize received will be standardised and weight adjusted to 12,5 percent moisture content,” he said. Mr Takaindisa indicated that GMB had been receiving an average of 200 tonnes per day since 1 April.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Dr John Basera said the ministry would ensure that dryers are installed at all GMB silo depots.
“We have put a waiver on moisture especially for maize because we want the current maize crop to be quickly taken out and delivered to the GMB. We have standard moisture. So that we quickly establish the wheat. Wheat is time sensitive. June plantings is not good, farmers end up losing the yield. We don’t want our farmers to lose the yield but we want a quick transition to winter wheat production. In order to ensure a quick transition season from the other we need dryers,” he said.
Grain rot can be a danger if grain has too high a moisture content.
Zimbabwe Indigenous Women Farmers’ Association Trust president Mrs Depinah Nkomo said the move was greatly appreciated adding that timeous payment was very crucial to enable farmers to embark on wheat production.
“This is a positive move but what is crucial to farmers is that they should get their money on time. We appreciate the move because it allows farmers to deliver their crop early so that they embark on other issues. Farmers also need to do gardening.
“In the previous seasons, farmers used to take a long period waiting for their crop to dry before delivering it to the GMB. We appreciate the Government’s effort of ensuring that farmers deliver the crop early,” she said.
Grain reserves will be raised again and for the third straight year there will be no maize imports, amid high expectations of a bumper harvest from increased hectarages planted during the good rains of the 2022-23 summer cropping season.
This has been attributed to Government input schemes, timely inputs distribution, constant supply of key utilities such as power and fuel to farmers, good rains received in all provinces and crowding-in the private and financial services sectors as enunciated in the Agriculture Recovery Plan.
The Government has set in motion public and private sector engagements to actualise its projections of three million tonnes of maize for the current season, from a combined hectarage of 1 940 969 being planted.
Online Reporter