October 14, 2013
Tendai Mugabe recently in MUKUMBURA
VICE President Joice Mujuru says Government intends to engage banks with a view to freezing debts owed by farmers to enable them to access funding for the 2013/14 cropping season.She said the stop-order loan repayment system should be resuscitated with respect to farmers who delivered grain to the Grain Marketing Board.
VP Mujuru said this in a speech read on her behalf by Mashonaland Central Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Cde Martin Dinha on Saturday at victory celebrations hosted by Mount Darwin North legislator Cde Novet Muponora in Mukumbura.
Addressing questions of food and nutrition, VP Mujuru said:
“That financial institutions (will) be engaged with a view to securing a moratorium for debt repayment by farmers already saddled with debts to the same institutions, to enable them to access funding for the 2013/14 agricultural seasons.”
VP Mujuru said Government, through the District Development Fund, had acquired tractors to bolster rural tillage and the Zunde raMambo facility.
In Mashonaland Central, VP Mujuru said, Government had allocated 40 tractors.
“The tractors will help chiefs, child-headed families, widows and widowers, people living with HIV and war veterans,” she said.
VP Mujuru said Government would soon formulate a law that regulates contract farming, making it mandatory for farmers and contractors to meet their obligations.
Some farmers have been short changed by contractors after signing contracts they do not understand while some farmers were engaging in side marketing.
VP Mujuru said the law was aimed at creating a win-win situation between farmers and contractors.
“The Government package provides a mechanism for the enforcement of contractual obligations to protect the investments of farmers, contractors and suppliers,” she said.
“This is the law. Farmers and contractors must respect and live within the law. Hatidi vaya vanonyepera kungwara vanoita side marketing or those companies that provide inadequate inputs and pay poor prices that are even below international market prices.”
VP Mujuru said Zanu-PF was committed to implementing promises made to the people as espoused in its manifesto.
In this regard, she said the Government had intensified efforts to provide inputs for the 2013/14 farming season. She said Government had made available US$182 million for the summer cropping season and banks were also complementing Government efforts by developing rural infrastructure such as irrigation and feeder roads.
VP Mujuru said Government was aware of the challenges facing people in Mukumbura such as the poor road network and the need for upgrading of immigration offices.
“I am aware of the poor state of the roads in the constituency and nationwide,” she said.
VP Mujuru called for unity of purpose among party supporters in Mashonaland Central as they elect a new provincial leadership later this month.
The incumbent Cde Dickson Mafios would battle it out with Cde Joboringo Mushore for the chairmanship of the province.
“Team Zanu-PF kushanda nevamwe zvakanaka takabatana,” she said.
“Mazvake-mazvake haatibatsiri uye hatiade. A leader whose eye is blind to nepotism, a leader who does not become cheap and by demonising and gossiping around, but focuses on challenges facing the constituency and how these can be resolved.”
Cde Muponora, who is also the Deputy Minister for Small to Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development, thanked the electorate for voting resoundingly for Zanu-PF.
Cde Muponora got 17 910 votes in the July 31 harmonised elections against MDC-T’s candidate’s 612.
Labels: JOICE MUJURU, MARTIN DINHA, NEW FARMERS
posted by MrK @ 4:53 PM
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