MPs raise GMB red flag

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The failure by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) to pay farmers on time for maize deliveries has forced many growers to switch to other cash crops, threatening food security.

The failure by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) to pay farmers on time for maize deliveries has forced many growers to switch to other cash crops, threatening food security.

BY VENERANDA LANGA

The development was exposed in a parliamentary committee report tabled in the National Assembly recently on the GMB audit for the financial years 2011 to 2014.

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Parliamentary portfolio committee on public accounts chairperson Paurina Mpariwa warned the country could be plunged into more severe food shortages.

“Late payment for maize deliveries means that government is making it very difficult for farmers to adequately plan for the next farming season,” reads the committee’s report.

“Farmers are also discouraged from growing maize, which is the country’s staple food and the country might in future have to rely on maize imports, creating a national food security risk.”

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), an estimated 1,5 million people or 16% of the population will be food insecure at the peak of the 2015 to 2016 lean season, the period before the next harvest when domestic food stocks get scarce.

The figure represents a 164% increase in food insecurity compared to the previous season.

About 28% of Zimbabwean children under the age of five are stunted, or have heights too low for their age as a result of chronic malnutrition.

The Public Accounts Committee report on the GMB audit said while Zimbabwe discouraged the growing of genetically modified organism (GMO) seed, some neighbouring countries had adopted the technology as part of efforts to improve their maize yields per hectare and arrest hunger.

“Regional production levels range from eight to 12 tonnes per hectare compared to ours which is around four tonnes per hectare,” the report said.

“Some governments have taken deliberate action such as subsidising agricultural inputs to support their farmers.” The committee said as a result of lack of such subsidies, agricultural production in Zimbabwe remained highly uncompetitive.

“With Zimbabwe becoming more and more a net importer of maize, there is a risk of exposing Zimbabweans to GMOs, which government has vowed not to allow on its soil as a matter of policy,” the committee said.

Compounding the problem of low maize yields would be the impending drought caused by climate change.

The committee said it was very concerned that government had consistently failed to avail funds to GMB timeously for the purchase of maize to be stored in the strategic grain reserve which targets storage of 500 000 metric tonnes.

“Disbursements have always been unpredictable. As a result of these bottlenecks, individuals with cash are now in the business of buying and selling maize,” the MP said.

“Soon after harvest time they mop up maize from the helpless farmers at prices as low as $180 per tonne and later on sell to GMB at $390.”

The committee report said they noted that GMB was taking 25 to 300 days to pay farmers for maize delivered, resulting in farmers selling their maize to private buyers who made prompt payments, but as low as $180 per tonne.

The GMB was also said to be failing to manage the strategic grain reserves, with the parastatal’s management itself admitting that they failed to maintain the stipulated strategic grain levels due to inadequate provision of funding by government.

“The committee further noted that minimum levels for the strategic grain reserves set in 1996 were no longer in tandem with the current realities in terms of the population of 14 million people.

“If there was adequate supervision and funding, the appropriate intervention would have been taken to avert the loss,” the committee said.

Bulawayo South MP Eddie Cross warned of the magnitude of hunger that faced the country as a result of poor management of the strategic grain reserves by GMB and corrupt practices thereat.

Cross said Zimbabwe imported 150 000 tonnes of maize per month.

He said countries like South Africa which supplied Zimbabwe with maize were also left with two and a half months’ supplies due to drought.

He said Zambia, which also supplies Zimbabwe had for the past two years struggled to get adequate supplies for its requirements.

“This year, due to inadequate rainfall which is predicted, we will be forced to import from abroad in the US Gulf or South America,” he said.

“If you order maize from the Gulf, you have to pay for it on the day in which you place the order and you have to pay for it in cash.

“It requires 65 000 wagons to bring the maize from the ports to Zimbabwe, which is five trains per day.

“Zimbabwe no longer has the capacity to do that. That is the price of not having strategic grain reserves, and we have to address this issue,” Cross said.