By Tadiwanashe Grand
Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union as a brand in farmer representation seeks to enhance the bargaining power of farmers as well as providing a platform for them to lobby and raise issues to relevant authorities. The ZFU Annual Congress is one such platform and the 81st edition presented an opportunity for farmers to ask questions directly to the Honourable Minister of Lands Agriculture Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement, Dr A J Masuka who the guest of Honour at the event was also.
Here are some of the questions and issues raised in the question and answer session.
Q1: “What is the Ministry doing about the ever-rising producer prices as well as electricity. For example, in my area It has been two weeks without electricity and production has halted?’
A1 Hon A.J Masuka: “About input prices, we were actually discussing this with the President and Vice president, and we are all very alarmed, but I am glad that the input suppliers are here. Seed has gone up from 6000 to 17 000 and fertilizers have equally gone up and there is another threat to increase fertilizer prizes again. At this stage, we can only appeal to input suppliers to please see the fundamentals and not price using the black-market rate. We hope that there will be an increase in stability. The government is putting in place mechanisms to make sure that we localise the production of fertilisers, and we have a 3 year roadmap to ensure that all our fertilizers will be made locally. As for seed, we are in discussions with Government controlled seed houses to increase their production capacity”
As for electricity, all the southern Africa’s grid is inter-connected and a week ago there was a fault which affected 3 southern African countries, but we have largely restored all or supplies from Kariba. However, government has invested in power generation. By 2023 Zimbabwe will be exporting electricity
Q2; “My issue is on cotton farming. As Cotton farmers we were promised to be paid in instalments but so far only one instalment has been paid, also there is no information regarding the delays or whether we’ll be paid at all. Right now it’s hard being a cotton farmer”
A2 Hon A.J Masuka: The Company in charge of cotton production is Cottco. It was facing financial challenges and could not pay the farmers, so the government stepped in to pay the difference, that is why the money is being paid in instalments. The first $34usd you already received. The rollout of the second payment has already began so ZFU will help us in locating the farmers who have not received their payment yet. In the following week we will have the rest of the money from the National Treasury to pay the cotton farmers”
Q3: “We have tea farmers in Honde valley who used to sell their tea to Katiyo factory, but the factory was shutdown. We spoke to the relevant authorities, and they relayed that they were looking for a partner. Right now, there is Eastern Highlands which is giving 9 ZWL per Kg which is very low and tea farmers gave up on production. My question is, since now there is a partner for Katiyo factory, when will it open?”
A3 ADA “We are in the process of resuscitating our tea estate. There is Rumbizi Estate siting on 152 hectares, and this is going to be a hub and we are actually in the process of aggregating out-growers to reengineer the tea as well. We have been given a 6 months ultimatum by our board to secure a tea processing and packing machine, so we are very confident that this is the first process to resuscitate the estate.”
Q4: “I am a coffee farmer, my issue is that when coffee farmers are paid, it takes too long for the money to be disbursed into farmers’ accounts. Another issue is that farmers are paid $20 usd per every $100usd in charges, but now it was raised to $40 usd per every $100usd, farmers are actually thinking of giving up on exporting and sell locally. My request is, can you please revise the fees back to $20 usd since 40% is high”
A4 Hon A.J Masuka: “A decision was made that for all export markets, the surrender would be 40% in all commodities and this has really assisted government to ensure that we procure enough vaccines and build enough health facilities. So this is a moving target, and I’m sure that the Reserve Bank Governor will be able to review that.
Q5 “Why is Government not contracting or supporting horticulture?”
A5 Hon A.J Masuka “Currently there are 7 presidential schemes. Many only know of Pfumvudza but there is also Blistigris, poultry scheme, presidential goat scheme just to name a few. There is also presidential rural scheme in which the Government is going to drill a borehole in each village. 35 000 boreholes in 35 000 villages, and each village will have a garden to do horticulture on. The President will be launching it very soon. The Government is also putting a 20 million US Dollar revolving fund facility for horticulture. So the Government has a horticulture development plan which clearly indicates the Government’s support in horticulture”
