GRAIN Marketing Board has paid farmers all outstanding amounts for the maize that they delivered to the parastatal, a Cabinet minister has said.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development minister Anxious Masuka said told the media this week that the GMB had cleared the ZWL157 billion that it owed farmers for maize and is left with a small portion of both the local and foreign currency component for the wheat that they delivered.
“Government has made strides to liquidate what we owe, in fact as of March 11 only $1.6 billion in Zimbabwe dollar terms remains of the outstanding payment for wheat,” he said. “We also have an outstanding US dollar obligation amounting to US$24 million,” he said.
Masuka said the government is committed to paying farmers for maize deliveries to the GMB timeously to enable them to return to the field. “The discussion by cabinet was for the Treasury to expedite farmers’ payments in order to motivate them for delivery to the GMB and it is in this context that the US$390 (per tonne) is for intake by the GMB.
This is the current import price and we said that the payment by the GMB must be import parity in order to mop the additional excess grain that might still be on farms in order to supplement the GMB intake to meet the social welfare requirements.”
As part of a cocktail of measures to guarantee food security for all in light of the el-Niño-induced drought that has hit the entire southern African region, the government announced plans to introduce duty free importation of basics that include rice, cooking oil, maize for households while duty is also waived on rice and seed potato beginning next July. — New Ziana