Readers of the Sunday Mail must have been left dumbfounded after reading a story that said over 900 000 farmers, repeat over 900 000 farmers, have so far applied to participate in the government’s command agriculture scheme.
The government is looking for only 2 000 who should be able to produce five tonnes per hectare and should have at least 200 hectares each to produce two million tonnes of maize on 400 000 hectares of land.
Now do the 900 000 farmers have 200 hectares each? Can they produce 5 tonnes per hectare? If this was so, would the country not have been food self-sufficient long ago?
In fact, simple mathematics dictates that if there are really 900 000 farmers all they need is one hectare each and produce two tonnes each. If they produce two and a half tonnes the country will be more than food sufficient.
The question now is: Are the farmers really aware of what the command agriculture scheme is all about, or they concentrated on the so-called inputs they are likely to get from the government?
Has the programme been turned into a free-for-all or someone is misleading the people?
What is your take?
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