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Charity Ruzvidzo Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union (ZCFU) Matabeleland Chapter has struck a deal with National Foods and National Tested Seeds to supply feed and inputs to its members on loan terms payable after six months.
Provincial (ZCFU) chairman Winston Babbage said the initiative was aimed at improving farmers’ accessibility to inputs and feed to boost agricultural output.
He emphasised that the scheme was mainly biased towards the youth and women farmers.
“As a farmer’s organisation it is our mandate to assist farmers in every way possible. We engaged National Foods to give poultry farmers especially women and youths inputs such as chicken feed. Payments will be made after six weeks,” he said.
“Access to funding and inputs has always been a problem for farmers. The project we’re undertaking will go a long way in enabling farmers to increase production.”
Babbage expressed optimism the partnership agreement would yield improved chicken production to meet local demand.
“Poultry farmers must be able to produce chickens and eggs to meet the demand locally. We should not import chickens from Harare,” he said.
“We’ve also managed to engage National Tested Seeds to offer farmers seed on loans. Farmers can pay after three months of taking the seed. The main objective is that a farmer can begin planting while gathering money to pay back the seed house.”
The initiative comes at a time when farmers are concerned about the recent increase in seed prices by almost 100 percent.
A 10kg bag of maize seed now costs between $27.50 and $31.00, up from between $21.00 and $24.00 while a 25kg bag also increased to between $68 and $113 from $57.
Farmers feel the move is unjustified and might hamper the cropping season and reduce yields.
Babbage, meanwhile, said his organisation was rolling out engagement programmes with farmers in the province to encourage them to grow tobacco.
“ZCFU is working with Agritex to teach Matabeleland farmers about tobacco farming. We’re trying to make them aware that tobacco is a cash crop that is bringing more money than any other crop in the country,” he said.
Comment could not be obtained from the two firms.
Online Reporter