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Minister Of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, And Rural Resettlement Dr Anxious Jongwe Masuka in an exclusive interview with TechnoMag said Government has so far paid about $17,5 billion to farmers across the country for grain deliveries to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), after a stellar farming season that saw record
grain output.
”..we believe that we should not be talking of food security.Food security is a given..all crops are budgeted to increase and we have started to give more attention to the livestock and fisheries so we expect more growth also in those sectors.”
He added ”though we have done well we can do better indeed in terms of maize for example last season we produced 900 000 metric tonnes and this season a wooping commendable 2,7million metric tonnes”
”we have paid 17, 5 billion to farmers for grain..it has been a stellar season but we can do better..”
Even Minister Of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube Ncube revealed this yesterday during a mid-term budget and economic
performance review panel discussion, during which he also said all key economic
indicators were looking up, as the economic recovery programme, enters overdrive.
“If you look at agriculture, all manners of the commodity have performed well . . . we are
seeing positive growth everywhere and we are quite confident about our prediction of 34
percent record growth,” he said.
“As Government ,we have spent about $15 billion paying out farmers, in fact as of
yesterday (Tuesday), we probably did another $2,5 billion, so already we are closer to
about $17 billion
“So far there is very strong delivery activity at GMB, but also whenever we pay farmers, we
are putting money into the economy, because farmers spend in the main, even if they save
it is still income to farmers. All of that can only support economic growth by pushing up
aggregate demand,” he said.
Strong agricultural performance and significant growth in other sectors would drive
recovery and overall economic growth, projected to reach 7,8 percent, which is a revision
from the initial forecast of 7,4 percent.
Aerodynamic Grain
The minister said commodities that have recorded remarkable growth this season,
included maize, tobacco, beef, cotton, sugar cane, horticulture, poultry, ground nuts and
soya beans among others.
Minister Masuka further elaborated to TechnoMag that ”we have initiated multi-stakeholder consultations and for the first time we have consulted extensively with the private sectors i have had more than 8 meetings with the various sectors..we are looking at enablers being irrigation development..we have engaged what we now call the irrigation development alliance being ..a consortium of 11 private companies to say how do we accelerate irrigation development to the desired 350 000 hactres by 2024 up from the current 216 000 hactres.”
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