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Senior Business Reporter
THE government has started distributing $200 million worth of inputs to farmers under the Presidential Agricultural Input Scheme, which will benefit 1,6 million households across the country this farming season.The scheme covers inputs such as maize, cotton and wheat production and is being disbursed at the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots countrywide.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister responsible for crop production Davis Marapira told Business Chronicle yesterday that distribution of the inputs started last week.
“Distribution of the inputs has started and so far we’ve covered some of the areas in Mashonaland provinces where inputs such as seed maize, fertilisers have been dispensed. We’ll soon be moving to Matabeleland region where farmers will receive small-grains,” he said.
“However, offhand I don’t have the quantities of inputs that have been disbursed so far.”
Under the scheme, each household would receive 50kg of compound D fertiliser, 50kg of ammonium nitrate and 10kg seed maize.
The package also includes 5kg of cotton and wheat seed as well as 2kg of soya beans.
Beneficiaries of the facility are mainly communal, small-scale, A1 and resettled farmers.
In the past, the initiative targeted maize producers but this year it has been extended to about 350,000 cotton growers facing production and marketing constraints.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Wonder Chabikwa confirmed that small-scale farmers had started receiving the inputs.
“As ZCFU, our members aren’t part of the Presidential Agricultural Input Scheme as the initiative targets to improve household food security. But I can confirm that small-scale holder farmers started receiving the inputs last week and we wish distribution of the inputs could be speeded up so that the farmers can plant early,” he said.
The Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union (ZFU) leadership could not be reached for comment.
In the 2014-15 summer cropping season the country targets to put one million hectares under maize production from which an estimated output of about 1,9 million tonnes would be realised.
Zimbabwe requires two million tonnes of maize per year.
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