New strategy launched to ease distribution of Presidential inputs

Ashton Mutyavaviri

FARMERS will no longer need to go to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots to collect inputs following the decision by Government to introduce the virtual depot distribution strategy for Presidential inputs programme, which will see inputs delivered directly to ward collection points.

GMB chief executive officer Dr Edson Badarai yesterday said the strategy would ensure transparent and timeous distribution of inputs to the beneficiaries.

“As Government, in order to bring efficiencies and managing costs we have introduced virtual depot distribution strategy for the Presidential inputs programme to ensure that farmers receive inputs timeously,” said Dr Badarai.

Under this strategy the Presidential inputs are going directly to the beneficiaries where they will be collected from ward collection points and common inputs distribution points (CIDPS) for the cotton to avoid double handling, he added.

“The strategy was done to ensure that we do not double handle the inputs where ordinarily they would come through GMB being offloaded, reloaded again and then send to the distribution points,” Dr Badarai explained.

Furthermore, Dr Badarai said Government through a Cabinet directive was working on irrigating 100 000 hectares through Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA).

He said: “We believe that within this week we should be able to have completed or distributed much of the inputs to ensure cropping has been done on time.”

In a statement, GMB assured systematic and flawless distribution of inputs under the Presidential inputs programme, adding that inputs were provided free of charge with farmers not expected to pay any transport costs.

The 2023/24 seed cotton production and marketing arrangements require all cotton inputs to be distributed at a common input distribution point (CIDP) with the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) capturing information on inputs distributed for both Government and private sector to establish a common database, which will be shared with Agritex for monitoring and evaluation purposes.

Recently, some farmers lamented the centralisation of CIDP, which resulted in them incurring transport costs from these places to their homesteads, as well as other miscellaneous expenses before getting inputs in some areas.

Cotton Producers and Marketers Association chairperson Mr Stewart Mubonderi said free Presidential Pfumvudza/Intwasa Inputs must reach farmers without any cost, but this was not the case in some areas.

Making farmers pay defies the logic of the Presidential Input Programme that was meant for vulnerable farmers, so if the elderly or child-headed households fail to get money, what do they do, they miss out, explained Mr Mubonderi.