No data yet on 'bumper' crop

The Zimbabwean government is backing its earlier estimate of a 2.4 million mt maize harvest this year, despite the state's Grain Marketing Board (GMB) being unable to say how much maize it has received from farmers. Government spokesman Steyn Berejena told IRIN on Monday that the projected 2.4 million mt was "a realistic figure", after news reports that a parliamentary committee had not been furnished with proof of the bumper crop. The parliamentary portfolio committee on land and agriculture requested that the GMB and the Central Statistics Office (CSO) provide it with data on the country's harvest two months ago, after various independent surveys contradicted the government's forecast. However, neither the grain monopoly nor the CSO have so far provided the committee with the information requested. "We need those figures and statistics, which should present a breakdown of what was harvested countrywide, so that we could compare with the situation on the ground," committee chairman Daniel Mackenzie Ncube was quoted as saying in the local Zimbabwe Independent newspaper. Berejena explained that the delay in supplying the committee with the relevant figures was due to the fact that "farmers are still busy transporting grain to the GMB - the harvest season is still on". "Most farmers are not yet through with the delivery of their crops, so the GMB may not be in a position at the moment to say 'yes we have received that 2.4 million mt'. It might take up to the end of September, as farmers do have problems with transport and, where possible, the GMB has been trying to assist them with transporting their grain to depots," Berejena said. Berejena questioned the intentions of some NGOs, which allegedly "are buying grain from farmers instead of facilitating farmers in delivering their grain to the GMB, which is the sole buyer of maize in the country. You find some NGOs with hidden agendas, wanting to make themselves middlemen instead". "At times they are even hoarding [maize bought from farmers] for unknown reasons," Berejena alleged. This "might affect the final [harvest] figures", he noted, as not all the grain harvested would be delivered to the GMB by farmers.