Bumper maize crop, but concerns for next year

Zimbabwe has recorded its biggest maize harvest for over a decade, but delays in payments to farmers by the state-owned Grain Marketing Board (GMB) could threaten next year’s crop, a leading Harare-based economist told IRIN.

Zimbabwe’s mainly communal farmers have produced around two million mt of the staple maize, more than enough to feed the country. “It’s the biggest crop we’ve had in 10, maybe 12 years,” John Robertson said. But, he added, delays in payments by the GMB “has put a strain on next year’s crop”.

In some parts of the country, late cheques have caused difficulties in securing seeds and fertilizers for new planting, which ideally should have started in early November. “Planting at this stage of the year is risky,” Robertson said.

Although the GMB has raised enough money to buy the maize crop, the official ‘The Herald’ newspaper reported this week that farmers in Mashonaland had complained that they had not been paid for their September deliveries. The GMB, however, has insisted that it has bought more than 65 percent of the harvest and was now processing cheques for farmers who delivered maize this month.

But the GMB’s acting chief executive Joan Mtukwa, also warned of a projected maize shortfall in the 2001/2002 season due to the high cost of agricultural inputs, which have doubled in price. That, Robertson said, is coupled with uncertainty over weather conditions during the important maize growing stage of January to March. “The prospects for the coming year are where the dangers lie,” he remarked.