The Grain Marketing Board has banned the delivery of large quantities of grain in the country to avoid illegal movement of grain as outlined by the statutory 145 of 2019.
GMB Chief Executive Officer, Mr Rockie Mutenha yesterday said they were now enforcing the Statutory Instrument on controlled crops, insisting that authorized people will enforce provisions of the GMB Act.
“An individual is only allowed to ferry five bags of maize and three bags of soya beans for personal use. For larger quantities, individuals or corporates will be required to have a valid movement permit issued by the GMB.
“The police and authorized persons shall enforce provisions of the GMB Act and the GMB deployed inspectors will act as authorized persons,” said Mr Mutenha.
Furthermore, Mutenha also added that by Wednesday, farmers had already delivered 30 182 tonnes compared to 9 216 tonnes during the same period last year.
Up to now farmers have delivered over 30 000 tonnes of maize to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots and the parastatal has now joined hands with police in manning roadblocks along major roads to curb illegal movement of grain.
More so maize and soya beans are controlled products whose movement is restricted and should only be sold to the GMB or a registered contractor and any engagements with other players is not allowed.
Mutenha also advised that farmers who benefited from the Pfumvudza project should also deliver their produce to GMB.
“We encourage beneficiaries of Pfumvudza to start delivering their crops,” he said.
Meanwhile, Government introduced Statutory Instrument 145 of 2019 for the control of sale of maize and Statutory Instrument 97 for the control of soya beans.
In Addition 87 GMB depots are open seven days a week while the more than 1 300 collection points will also be operational for the convenience of farmers.
Furthermore, Government has availed combine harvesters through the newly established Agricultural Finance Corporation Leasing Company, which farmers have been urged to take advantage of, especially wheat farmers.
Zimbabwe expects to harvest 2,7 million tonnes of maize during the 2020/21 summer cropping season.
The output is three times last season’s output on the back of good rainfall across the country.
Last year, the maize harvest was 900 000 tonnes, which is half the annual requirement for human and stock feed requirements.
However, the good rains, coupled with early distribution of inputs especially under Government supported programmes such as Pfumvudza and Command Agriculture, contributed to the expected high yield.
Source Herald
