Seed-Co assures farmers

Speaking at a stakeholders’ interactive meeting in Bulawayo, Seed-Co managing director Mr Dennis Zaranyika said:
“We can’t talk of the shortages anymore. At the beginning of this year Seed-Co had an excess of 45 000 tonnes of stock in the warehouse, which is enough to support the farmers in the country.”

He said now that the country was assured of adequate seed, that seed  should now be turned into grain so that the nation was guaranteed of food security.
“What is important now is how do we turn the 45 000 tonnes of maize seed into grain? We implore the use of appropriate varieties. For   example, Matabeleland region is dry and is appropriate for small grains and also we also have maize seed varieties that are suitable for this area,” he said.

Mr Zaranyika said in terms of market share, Seed-Co controlled 80  percent in the country while it had made major inroads in neighbouring countries. “In Zimbabwe, we control 80 percent market share but because of (previous) shortages we are around 73 percent and outside the country for example in Zambia we have 50 percent market share while in Malawi we have 60 percent. This shows we are doing very well,” he said.

The seed producer also produces seed varieties for summer wheat, groundnuts and sorghum among others.
Speaking at the same occasion, Seed-Co group public relations and communications manager Ms Marjorie Mutemererwa said her organisation was also engaged in farming competition to encourage farmers boost agricultural productivity.

“We are also running two competitions for farmers in all the provinces. We have the bumper harvest competition where the winner gets a tractor and the agricultural extension worker in the area where the winning farmer is based gets a motorbike and prize money. In conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development each year we give out 20 motorbikes for the competition,” she said.

The company has given out 40 motorbikes over the past two seasons.
She said as part of their efforts to raise productivity in the  agriculture sector, Seed-Co had come up with a programme where 10 farmers were selected to attend training on the best farming techniques in South  Africa.