GMB under fire

Top1 — Minister of Presidential Affairs Cde Didymus Mutasa (second from right) hands over seed maize to the Pioneer national small-scale farming competition winner Mrs Patricia Nyakwava and her husband Felix during a field day held at their homestead in Nyanga last Friday, while National Assembly Member for Nyanga South Cde Supa Mandiwanzira (right) looks on

Senior Reporter
THE Grain Marketing Board is to blame for woes facing maize farmers in the country because it is operating in an unprofessional and haphazard manner, a Cabinet minister has said.Addressing small-scale maize farmers drawn from eight provinces at a field day in Nyanga last week, the Minister of Presidential Affairs, Cde Didymus Mutasa, said Government was not happy with the way the GMB is being run.

He said there is need for the parastatal to partner with private companies so that it becomes efficient and more customer-oriented.

“At present the GMB is taking maize farmers for granted. It operates without taking on board concerns by maize farmers. I will meet with Dr Joseph Made and see how best GMB reshuffles its operations. It does not make economic sense for the GMB to just wait to buy from farmers and mill the maize into mealie-meal. The parastatal should be heavily involved in supporting farmer initiatives in the fields so that we produce more.

“Personally, I am not happy with the way GMB is handling farmers. At times farmers hire transport to ferry their produce to GMB for resale. At the depot they are told the moisture content of their maize is still high and they have to go back home and dry the maize. This happens on several occasions and as maize farmers you can agree with me that this is happening or it has happened to you. By so doing GMB is worsening the plight of the farmers because you still have to pay for the transport even if you did not sell your produce. You also have to hire transport again to ferry the maize when it’s completely dry.”

Instead of turning away farmers, Cde Mutasa said GMB must invest in equipment to dry the maize at the depot.

“You don’t operate business like that these days,” he said.

In recent years, farmers have dropped producing maize due to unfavourable producer prizes as well as financial bottlenecks facing GMB.

Farmers go for months without payment after delivering their produce to the GMB and this usually affects preparations for the next season.

However, Government recently upped the producer price of maize to $390 per tonne in a bid to lure farmers who were now into tobacco farming.