via Govt requires US$60m to pay Zambian grain | The Herald by Ellita Chikwati September 28, 2013
Government requires about US$60 million to bring in the remaining 137 000 tonnes of maize from Zambia, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made said Zimbabwe has so far paid US$10 million to Zambia and will procure more grain once funds become available.
“We have since written to the Ministry of Finance for more funds to enable the movement of grain from Zambia,” said Minister Made.
The 137 000 tonnes is part of the 150 000 tonnes of maize sourced from Zambia on a government-to-government agreement between the two countries.
Government has received 19 425 tonnes of maize out of the 150 000 tonnes.
Minister Made said the shortage of funding was affecting the payment of transporters who have been moving grain from Zambia and others who have been distributing the grain to deficit areas.
“We would like to thank the transporters who have been working with us distributing the grain to areas with food shortages,” he said.
“It is critical that they get their money for the programme to continue.”
The major areas that are in dire food shortages are Matabeleland South, Masvingo, Manicaland and southern parts of Manicaland.
Some parts of Mashonaland East and Central have also been severely affected.
Zimbabwe received poor rains last cropping season, resulting in food shortages.
Some people facing serious food shortages have had to import grain from other areas with supply while others are selling their livestock in exchange of grain.
Some livestock farmers are on the other hand buying hay from different areas to feed their livestock.
COMMENTS
My my buying from the enemy. The productive farmers you got rid of are feeding the people. Shame shame shame on you.
THE SAME WHITE FARMERS YOU FORCED TO MOVE TO ZAMBIA! SHAME, SHAME!
Point of correction the maize from zambia is grown by small scale farmers not the white zim farmers. FRA does not buy from them
Its well known that the maize from Zambia is from former Zim white farmers. Don’t think we are daft.
Not so long ago these small scale formers in Zambia could not feed their country and now you tell us they are feeding Zambia and Zimbabwe. Zuki your racism has no place in modern society, I suggest you look inwards to improve yourself.
Iwe urimwana we hure ndini chnotimba ndava MP ku buhera hapana ma smal scall farmers angarime ma tonnes akadaro ku zambia varungu vatakadzinga kuno ini ndini ndaiva pamberi pakudzinga varungu asi hazvina zvakatibatsira vamugabe ndakavaudza kuti this is a failer vakabvuma varungu ngavadzoke
I remember not so long ago we used to sell grain to other countries including Zambia and we used to laugh at the Zambians’ inability to feed themselves and their useless kwacha.Then the revolutionary party carried out a very successful land reform programme which has resulted in hunger in our land and we need food handouts from the evil Western imperialists and from
Zambia.Zimbabwe under Zanu is a sick joke
So now the grain shortage is all because of the poor rains, heh? I thought the evil sanctions were the cause of all bad things in the country. Or perhaps the sanctions caused the rain not to fall… And for the inputs to come too late… And for the
diamond money to never help the people…And for Mugabe to have no clue how to grow the economy. That’s it right?
KuZambia ndiko kwakanaya mvura inokudza chibage nhayi? Zimbabwe yakarohwa nechivhura mabwe chibage chakaita tsarapu.Saka ichokwadi kuti mari inomboshaika nhayi? Biti aiinzi anotinyima mari, asi kana mavepo yaakushaikwa. Yemotokari dzemacabinet ministers haishaikwi,nemaMPs haishaikwi? Zvakatodzora nekuti nyanga dzavepo.
Zuki, does it really matter who grew the maize in Zambia, the fact of the matter is that since the chaotic land reform program in 2000, Zimbabwe has crashed to an unacceptable level of production. Maize is down from 2 million MT to less than 500 thousand MT, there is zero soybean being produced down from approximately 80 thousand MT, wheat is almost non existent down from 300 thousand MT, this has been going on for more than 10 years, are you saying that travel sanctions on a few ZanuPF chefs has created this?? Zimbabwe has also experienced average weather patterns in the last ten years, so stop blaming the rains. Zimbabwe was exporting wheat and soybean to Zambia from 1995 – 2000 and during the chaotic Kaunda and Chaliba era maize was exported to Zambia from Zimbabwe. Unless you clowns from ZanuPF wake up and admit that the land invasions of 2000 destroyed the main economic pillar of Zimbabwe, your ZanuPF Govt. will be spending millions of dollars on importing wheat maize andoilseed or processed oil for the next five years until a new Govt replaces this one and reverses this idiotic and destructive system. Try and do the numbers Zuki, just for flour imports so that the people can eat bread, the Govt spends 70% of its monthly revenue on salaries …. where will you get the money to import all these vital commodities, I suppose the Chinese will help, China does not do AID programs, they invest money to make money, they don’t give money away. Wake up you moron !!!!
The reason being peddled for the food shortages is poor rains. Fact or Fiction – Fiction. Zambia, separated from Zimbabwe by and sharing the largest in-land water body in the region (Lake Kariba) benefit from the same inter tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) such that the northern and central arable regions received the same rainfall as Zambia and these regions used to produce enough to feed the nation and avoid imports. Instead we used to export to Malawi, Zambia & others. The same farmers who used to produce in Zimbabwe are now producing on the northern side of the Zambezi river while the arable commercial farmland parceled out to peasant families lies furlough. The beneficiaries, averaging 75 years and want the land more as a status do not have farming knowledge, expertise, capacity and passion. Some of them used tractors dished from the RBZ as transport to beer drinking binges using fuel provided at 1% of market price. The deforestation on the parceled land is devastating and this further worsens the global warming that impacts negatively on rainfall patterns. Now that Tyson is responsible for the weather ministry, lets wait and see what comes out of the tin. Cry The Beloved Country.
All the above comments and you, ZANU PF, expect us to believe that the electorate voted for you. Zuki you are in good company, you are not the only moron.
Shame shame, shame on you Zuki. A grade 7 student/learner would have reasoned much better. Next time use your brain and not your heart. It’s ex Zim farmers that are producing maize in Zambia.
does ‘nt seem anyone wants to extend credit either!
Why so silent comrade zuki, you have to fight back! Hah hah hah, Its the resounding success of the land reform, we eat dust!
It a sorry state that we are buying from Zambia which used to be our customer. Can Made justify this. Money which could have been used for development is used to buy grain. An avoidable scenario if we had serious farmers. Alas what else can you expect from dead wood.
We have very serious farmers who are willing and able to make a success of farming. But what can we do when inputs prices from private companies are prohibitive and the so called presdental inputs help always come too late to work with, that is if one is luck enough to get the leftovers after the chefs have taken most of the inputs. If one is luck enough to acquire the inputs and successfully produce enough to sell one discovers that one was infact a mare worker for gmb in case of maize or cmb in case of cotton etc. These institutions just dont buy our produces. They just take from the farmers and give them wages for working for them. Believe me our hopes were pinned on the expected advent an mdc gvt which had promised title deeds for our pieces of land.
So Pafunge, you telling us you voted for MDC as well?
We are now the basket case of SADC. The “Third Chimurenga” morons should just admit that their so-called “land reform” was an abject failure! Then maybe we can move on as a nation. Blaming the rain and non-existent economic sanctions all the time sounds pathetic!
I suggest that we refuse to buy the grain from Zambia unless it can be proven to be produced by Small Scale farmers. After all if we were buying this grain from these racist white Zambian (former Zimbabwean)land grabbers we are only making them more wealthy. Was it not our learned First Lady who said that the peasants should eat cake??
Send Joseph Made to Mazabuka to see how maize should be grown.
And you call us racists?
Also if you knew your history you would know it was Mary Queen of Scots who first termed the phrase “Let them eat cake”.
Actually, it was Princess Marie Antoinette of France who said that, upon learning that the peasants had no bread. It showed how oblivious she was to the plight of the poor, because in the original French the word was brioche not bread, and brioche requires eggs and butter, ingredients unattainable by the poor.
I hope Zimbabwean greedy politicians choke on the Zambian grain being grown by ex-Zimbabwe farmers!