HARARE – A scheme designed to give farmers free access to seed and fertilizer, backed by treasury, is facing major hurdles after it was revealed that the government owes suppliers in excess of US$300 million.
The seed and fertilizer is doled out to communal farmers for free under a “presidential inputs scheme” known as Pfumvudza/Intwasa.
Obert Jiri, the secretary in the lands ministry, told parliament’s public accounts committee on Monday that the government had failed to pay seed and fertilizer companies for the past three years.
“The main challenge is certainly the financing of this programme. Our contractors – FSG Fertilizer, ZFC Fertilizer and Quton Seed – they are owed in excess of US$300 million for the 2020/2021 season, 2021/2022 season and the 2022 /2023 season. So we owe them quite a lot, and this is what delays the movement of inputs, because if we don’t pay, they cannot move the inputs,” he said.
“We wanted to be as early as we must at this particular time, but the cropping season is now starting, and we have out there 50 percent of our seed, 49 percent of our compound D fertilizer, which is the major bulk input.”
Jiri said if the money was found today, “we should be done moving the fertilizer by mid-November.”
He still hoped that maize seed deliveries to districts could still be done by the end of the first week of November, but the cash crunch would affect traditional grains because “some of it has to be imported.”
The government is targeting to supply seed and fertilizer to about 3,5 million households under the scheme this year.
Zimbabwe’s 2023/24 farming season was a disaster after limited rainfall hit production. Normal rainfall is expected this cropping season but delayed assistance to farmers in need of inputs could also affect production and perpetuate the country’s food deficit.
