Zimbabwe not panicking about maize shortage- says will buy from local farmers first

Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi who is leader of government business in Parliament yesterday said Zimbabwe is not panicking about the impending maize shortage because it has about 245 000 tonnes in grain reserves and will pay local farmers an import parity price of US$390 to release the maize that they have.

Responding to questions in the Senate, Ziyambi said there might not be any grain in the silos but farmers were holding a lot of maize. 

“Government decided to have multifaceted responses to this.  The first one currently, we are providing our people with relief aid in pockets that did not perform well the previous season, but what we are also doing is, we have decided to mop up maize that farmers might have and as a result, an announcement was made that Government is going to be paying farmers the import parity price of $390 per tonne and our hope is that, that will incentivise farmers to bring the maize that they have,” Ziyamba said.

“We actually have an estimate of what we believe is there within the farming community.  That is the reason why I also indicated that Government has actually incentivised to say that instead of us importing from outside, why not offer our farmers, whom we know have their maize stocked up, the import parity price, so that we buy from them and we empower them as opposed to  importing first.”

On Wednesday Ziyambi said Zimbabwe would not be importing any genetically modified maize because the law did not allow it to do so.

Q&A:

HON. SEN. MACKENZIE:  Thank you very much Mr. President.  My question is directed to the Leader of the House, Hon. Ziyambi.  Hon. Minister, we know that this year is a very difficult year in terms of maize situation throughout the country.  We know that in a situation like this, our people are going to be exploited, others hoarding so that they can spike the prices.  What precautionary measures is Government putting in place to ensure that our people are not exploited?  Thank you, Mr. President.

THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. Z. ZIYAMBI):  Thank you Mr. President.  I want to thank Hon. Sen. Mackenzie for the question which is very important. 

Mr. President, what Government is doing is that we have a situation that is obtaining because of the El Nino and our projected harvest for the coming season, we are actually in the middle of assessing how it has been impacted by El Nino even though we know that the harvest that we expected, we are not going to get it. 

What we are doing, we are doing it in two parts.  Currently Mr. President, as of now, we are still food self-sufficient.  We had a very good harvest the previous year but we are projecting that as we go forward, we are going to have to be food self sufficient because of the El Nino phenomenon. 

Government decided to have multifaceted responses to this.  The first one currently, we are providing our people with relief aid in pockets that did not perform well the previous season, but what we are also doing is, we have decided to mop up maize that farmers might have and as a result, an announcement was made that Government is going to be paying farmers the import parity price of $390 per tonne and our hope is that, that will incentivise farmers to bring the maize that they have.

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