Cabinet approved the maize floor producer price review to ZW$6 958 and zw$ 7 260 per metric tonne to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) according to information coming from yesterday’s meeting.
The price has been reviewed to encourage deliveries at GMB for maize and for the replenishment of the Strategic Grain Reserve for traditional grains.
“Traditional grains are what is being commonly referred to by the media as small grains which in essence is a term inherited from the colonial era when traditional grains had no significant role to play in the agricultural economy. Therefore, the use of the term ‘small grains’ should be discontinued and discouraged as we begin to promote traditional grains in the face of climate change challenges, and health challenges related to consumption of maize meal,” Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said.
“As Government invests in the production of traditional grains such as millet, rapoko, sorghum as well as research related to their development, we cannot continue to use the term “small grains”.
Besides grain price, the cabinet also approved the maize, wheat and soya bean production recovery plan.
“The recovery plan is an extract of the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy, which seeks to achieve over US$8 billion Gross Agriculture Production Value by 2023,” Mutsvangwa said.
“Cabinet acknowledged that the Maize, Wheat and Soyabean Recovery Plan, if meticulously implemented, has the potential to reverse the dependence on imports for these crops as well as to mitigate the financial burden on Treasury and ultimately put the country on a trajectory to attain Vision 2030.”
The recovery plan includes contract farming targeting 5 000 highly productive farmers in irrigated areas, Commodity Value Chain Financing Model, Climate proofed Presidential Input Support Scheme and also the creation of a lowveld Maize Belt (Masvingo), Bulawayo Kraal and Kanyemba.
Zimbabwe cabinet approves new prices and a recovery plan after agriculture contracted by 15,8% as a result of weather conditions last year.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) assessment team to Zimbabwe, called for non‑essential spending cuts, including decisive reforms to agricultural support programs, to allow for social spending needs from the country’s government.