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Elita Chikwati
Agriculture Reporter
Treasury will provide the $60 billion needed by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB)to buy the maize crop to be harvested shortly and will pay the $1,6 billion needed for storage and intake resources and infrastructure establishment and maintenance.
This year’s grain marketing season opens in just over three weeks on April 1, with the GMB expecting up to 1,8 million tonnes of grains from farmers.
The rest of the crop, of up to 2,5 million tonnes, is retained by the farmers for their own consumption.
GMB chief executive Mr Rockie Mutenha on Wednesday told the parliamentary portfolio committee on Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement chaired by Cde Mayor Wadyajena that the GMB was carrying out maintenance works on silos and was ready to start receiving grain from farmers.
“Deliveries are expected to start on April 1 and getting to the peak around July up to August 2021. They will start to tail off around October 2021,” he said.
“GMB is targeting to pay farmers within seven days of delivery. For farmer payments, we have upgraded the SAP system to be more efficient. Payments will be done electronically into farmers’ bank accounts and through EcoCash.
“All processes will be done at depot level, with all paper transactions done and authorised at depot level and 87 depots will be paying points.”
Mr Mutenha said the headquarters will carry out Treasury function of sourcing funds and authorising bank payment batches for control purposes. These are done electronically.
“GMB has introduced its Farmer Card payment platform which operates just the same as EcoCash,” he said. “We will continue to ensure timely payments for farmers to preserve value for money.”
So far, the GMB has identified 1 350 collection points across the country against a target of 1 800 and will be using 665 Cottco buying points where farmers can deliver both cotton and maize.
“We have also secured space to accommodate 65 000 tonnes of grain from private companies either in the form of sheds or silos,” said Mr Mutenha.
He said GMB operated 87 depots throughout the country and was represented in every district.
“GMB has 12 silos depots with a combined capacity of 750 000 tonnes. We are currently carrying out annual maintenance plus mechanical works for efficient receiving and dispatching of grain, electrical works for the automation of the plant for efficient operation, fire-fighting equipment for disaster management and calibration of weigh bridges.”
GMB is attending to grading equipment for testing density and maturity of grain.
The silo depots were at different levels of refurbishment.
“Five out of 12 depots are ready to receive crop any time,” said Mr Mutenha. “These are Magunje, Karoi, Mukwichi, Chiweshe, and Murehwa.
“Concession and Chegutu depots are under refurbishment and will be complete by 15 March. Works will commence from March 16 at Lions Den, Norton and Banket. These will be complete by April 15. Most of the works are minor as a complete overhauls were done the previous season and not much crop was received.
“Aspindale in Harare and Bulawayo will be refurbished last because the works are minor.”
Mr Mutenha said the bag depots have a combined handling capacity of 2,4 million tonnes of grain.
“All the 52 weighbridges are complete and ready for use. We have 364×10 bag scales in stock and these have been calibrated and assized ready for use.
“We have also purchased and received a consignment of 900 new scales in preparation for the season,” said Mr Mutenha. “We have 140 stacker machines of which 131 are complete. This represents 95 percent. The remaining five percent will be complete in two weeks’ time.”
The parastatal is also constructing concrete hardstands with most of them now at between 50 to 70 percent completion.
Driers have been installed and commissioned at seven depots: Banket, Concession, Kwekwe, Chegutu, Karoi, Lions Den and Murehwa.
Zimbabwe is expecting a bumper harvest due to the good rains and early distribution of agricultural inputs.
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