Seed producers to import more varieties

SEED houses are in the process of importing supplementary seed to mitigate the shortage of medium to long-term varieties in Zimbabwe, a senior Government official has said.

Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Air Marshal Perrance Shiri yesterday said there was demand for medium to long season varieties.

“There is sufficient maize seed to cater for Command Agriculture, the Presidential Inputs Scheme and the generality of farmers.

“The only challenge is on increased demand for the high yielding medium to long season varieties. Seed houses are in the process of importing supplementary seed to arrest the situation,” he said.

Air Marshal Shiri said funds were being mobilised to meet all agriculture requirements.

“Efforts are underway to secure funding for the acquisition of inputs which may be currently in short supply,” he said.

Zimbabwe Farmers Union director, Mr Paul Zakariya said the 2017 /18 farming season had started in most areas and farmers were taking advantage of the rains to carry out land preparations or plant.

About 50 percent of the farmers have started planting.

“The major challenge is the high cost of inputs. A 25 kilogramme bag of maize seed costs around $90 while the price of fertiliser has gone up to around $40 per 50kg bag,” he said.

Mr Zakariya said herbicides and pesticides had also gone up and were now out of reach of many. The increase in the inputs prices has been attributed to shortage of foreign currency.

“Government has allowed farmers to import fertiliser, but they do

not have foreign currency and will buy from the parallel market. This makes the commodity expensive.

“We do not encourage our farmers to source foreign currency from the parallel market. Besides fertiliser, there is a shortage of medium and long season maize seed varieties on the market,” he said.

He said most of the seed that was on the market were short season varieties and new varieties which farmers were not familiar with.

“Farmers cannot make a decision on the best seed to buy and end up buying the available seed and this may compromise their yields,” he

said.

Zimbabwe Indigenous Women Farmers Association Trust president, Mrs Depinah Nkomo yesterday concurred with Mr Zakariya that inputs were unavailable.

“Prices of seed and fertilisers have increased and this erodes our profits. Government should assist us by subsidising inputs at the manufacturing level so that the final product becomes affordable to the farmer.

“Most women do not have access to funding and if inputs are subsidised we can break even,” she said.