I am aware that we have already announced producer prices for the current season, including undertaking to pay 30 percent of early deliveries in United States dollars. Still, all that is not adequate to get the farmer back onto the land in the next season.
I am keenly aware that there have been significant price movements all round since we announced producer prices for the season.
These price movements were partly related to the unstable exchange rate; they have made those producer prices announced earlier on non-viable to the farmer. The farmer must be supported.
I have directed Government to revise grain producer prices so they are adjusted in the light of the aforesaid movements, and to ensure farmers are motivated to go back to the land in the coming season.
Equally, in view of the conflict in Eastern Europe, I have directed Government to redirect resources towards localising production of key inputs so we edge towards agricultural input national self-sufficiency.
Government will also address prices of inputs so farming remains viable, making food both abundant and affordable. On my part, the Presidential Input Support Programme will be enhanced so our small farmers escape the ratchet effect from the bad 2021/2022 season. Distribution of inputs will start early, buttressed by more efficient tillage technologies which the responsible ministry is developing to support the Pfumvudza Programme.
I am aware that our seed producers are also facing viability challenges. Yet seed is critical to our overall food security. I direct seed houses, Agriculture Ministry and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to look into this area urgently so our seed growing farmers find it worth their while to go back to seed production in the coming season. This is a costly, labour-intensive area which must be rewarded.
I am also confident that measures we have taken to promote wheat production this season should see us moving towards national wheat self-sufficiency. Areas in Manicaland where wheat production is popular with smallholder farmers must receive greater Government support, starting from the next wheat season.
Lastly, Government is vigorously looking at several options towards encouraging on-farm value addition, in line with our Rural Industrialisation Policy which, in my view, must be farmer-led. Government will interrogate the whole gamut: from policy, incentive regime, technologies, funding right through to marketing of value-added products.
On-farm beneficiation, whether done singly or through farmer consortia, should be the way forward. It will enhance provincial GDPs while creating dispersed employment opportunities in the country.
By President Emmerson Mnangagwa for the Sunday Mail
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