Farmers and local leaders who sell or give away inputs they receive under the Climate-proofed Presidential Inputs Scheme (Pfumvudza) will be blacklisted, will never benefit from any future Government programme and could face prosecution.
The Joint Operations Command has been asked to monitor the
lists submitted at provincial level and ensure Agritex officers lower down the
line cannot be bullied by councillors trying to get allocation rules broken.
Beneficiaries of the Pfumvudza inputs will be compelled to
sign a contract form designed by a legal team, which will be used to take legal
action against those who do not put the inputs to good use.
The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural
Resettlement has intensified efforts to curb the abuse of Government sponsored
inputs programmes after past reports of farmers and some political and
traditional leaders abusing inputs under a variety of schemes, with some
selling them or issuing them to undeserving people.
Agritex acting chief director, Mr Stancila Tapererwa
yesterday said the ministry had engaged other organisations to ensure the
inputs were given to deserving people and put to good use. The Joint Operations
Command (JOC) had been roped in to oversee the programme.
“We agreed on structures for the distribution of the
inputs. At provincial level, the Provincial Development Coordinator chairs the
committee while at district level, the DDC (District Development Coordinator)
chairs. At ward level, the committee is chaired by a councillor. We have (also)
put in place JOC,” he said.
JOC comprises of police, the Zimbabwe Prisons and
Correctional Services (ZPCS), the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and the President’s
Department. All the above departments will attend the provincial meetings and
check that the inputs were given to deserving people.
Mr Tapererwa said names of beneficiaries are submitted to
the provincial committee and JOC members will assist in monitoring. At district
level, JOC will assist Agritex staff to ensure they are not bulldozed by
councillors to give inputs to undeserving people.
Those abusing inputs will be reported to the police and
farmers who sell inputs will be blacklisted and barred from benefiting from any
future Government programmes.
“There is a contract form designed by a legal team which
farmers will be compelled to sign. The form will be used by the prosecuting
authority,” said Mr Tapererwa.
Beneficiaries of the programme will also be expected to
send part of their harvest to the Grain Marketing Board to contribute towards
national food security.
“A farmer has three plots and will be required to send a
tonne from the third plot to the GMB. The farmer will be paid for the grain and
farmers must agree to that condition. This is the same way being used for
cotton where farmers get inputs for free and sell to Cottco,” he said.
Government is now working with the police and awareness
campaigns will be carried out through the police programme on ZTV called “Crime
Watch”.
Pfumvudza is one of the concepts under the Agriculture
Recovery Plan, which was being spearheaded by Government to boost food
production, ensure national food security and save foreign currency that would
otherwise be used to import grain.
Food production has been on a decline due to climate change
and the Ministry of Agriculture has come up with an agriculture recovery plan
to boost productivity. Pfumvudza has 2,2 million households that benefit from
inputs and training.
From one plot, a farmer can get between 800kg and one tonne
of maize, making it two tonnes per household. A family of five people consumes
a tonne of maize per year.
The family will consume one tonne while the remaining tonne
will go towards national supplies, eventually being eaten after processing by
people in non-maize areas and in the towns and cities. Under Pfumvudza, farmers
will not need vast tracts of land to be food sufficient. They will also be
encouraged to practise crop rotation to maintain the soil productive. Herald
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