Buy crop now, say cotton farmers
Friday, 08 June 2012 12:00
COTTON growers have urged Government to start buying the crop now, as further delays will result in huge losses. This follows an announcement by the Agricultural Marketing Authority that cotton has been declared a controlled product with immediate effect. This means Government will buy the entire crop.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union executive director, Mr Paul Zakariya, said it was Government’s role to quickly move in and announce prices.
“As we speak, we eagerly await to hear what the next step will be as farmers are still holding on to their crop following our advice,” he said.
Mr Zakariya said the union supported any move aimed at alleviating farmers’ suffering.
“We support any Government initiatives to save farmers and we believe that the Government has assessed all the risks associated with the move,” he said.
Mr Zakariya also implored Government to come up with a long term plan on production of the crop.
“We want long-term planning in terms of how cotton is going to be produced in the country.
“Growers should not get stranded by lack of funding and we hope Government is working on this,” he said.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president, Mr Donald Khumalo, urged Government to always protect farmers’ interests. — Herald Reporter/New Ziana.
Labels: COTTON, PAUL ZAKARIYA
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Buy crop now, say cotton farmers
Friday, 08 June 2012 12:00
COTTON growers have urged Government to start buying the crop now, as further delays will result in huge losses. This follows an announcement by the Agricultural Marketing Authority that cotton has been declared a controlled product with immediate effect. This means Government will buy the entire crop.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union executive director, Mr Paul Zakariya, said it was Government’s role to quickly move in and announce prices.
“As we speak, we eagerly await to hear what the next step will be as farmers are still holding on to their crop following our advice,” he said.
Mr Zakariya said the union supported any move aimed at alleviating farmers’ suffering.
“We support any Government initiatives to save farmers and we believe that the Government has assessed all the risks associated with the move,” he said.
Mr Zakariya also implored Government to come up with a long term plan on production of the crop.
“We want long-term planning in terms of how cotton is going to be produced in the country.
“Growers should not get stranded by lack of funding and we hope Government is working on this,” he said.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president, Mr Donald Khumalo, urged Government to always protect farmers’ interests. — Herald Reporter/New Ziana.
Labels: COTTON, PAUL ZAKARIYA
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Farmers start harvesting irrigated tobacco
Friday, 23 December 2011 00:00
Some farmers with irrigated tobacco have started harvesting and curing their crop at a time when those on rain fed farms are still planting. About 22 000 hectares have been put under tobacco this year out of a target of 70 000 with planting still underway.
At least 11 000 hectares of the planted area is under irrigation compared to 13 000 hectares last year. More than 65 000 farmers registered to grow the crop in the 2011/12 cropping season compared to 52 000 the previous year.
Traditionally, tobacco planting officially ends on December 31.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union vice president Ms Mayideyi Maswi said the late onset of rains had delayed the maturity of the crop.
"Tobacco farmers in traditional growing areas with irrigated crop have started harvesting and curing the golden leaf for the past three weeks," she said.
"These areas include some parts in the Mashonaland East, Central and West provinces," she said.
Zimbabwe expects to produce about 150 million kg of the golden leaf next year, 12 percent higher than 132 million kg produced in the past year. Ms Maswi said that while some farmers were already harvesting their crop, others were still planting.
"It's mixed fortunes, some farmers are harvesting while others are planting or one farmer is doing both," Ms Maswi said.
Zimbabwe Farmers' Union director Mr Paul Zakariya confirmed that irrigated crop had done very well and some farmers were already harvesting.
"The irrigated crop shows a success story mainly due to experience gained by the farmers now," he said.
Mr Zakariya said the liquidity crunch being experienced in the country was likely to affect production, as many farmers did not have adequate labour due to lack of funds.
China is the biggest buyer of Zimbabwean tobacco including cigarettes, importing a total of 33,8 million kg worth US$245 million while the United Arab Emirates and South Africa were the second largest taking 12, 5 million and 12, 7 million kg respectively.
- New Ziana.
Labels: CHINA, IRRIGATION, PAUL ZAKARIYA, TOBACCO
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Agric sector needs US$800m
Tuesday, 25 January 2011 22:30 Agriculture
Agriculture Reporter
THE agricultural sector requires a minimum of around US$800 million to effectively finance this summer and winter’s cropping programmes for both the smallholder and large scale sectors.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union director Mr Paul Zakariya said the US$22 million that Finance Minister Tendai Biti allocated to the sector was a far cry from what the sector needed.
In a bid to bridge the gap, Mr Zakariya said, ZFU was starting an input loan scheme involving fertiliser and seed houses alongside some companies in the private sector to help the farmers.
“Banks are still not able to adequately finance farmers as they do not have the capacity to extend long term loans that farmers need,” said Mr Zakariya in an interview on Monday.
“In fact, the Government should be prioritising agriculture when drawing the national budget so that the sector is adequately capitalised to boost productivity and throw a lifeline to other sectors through the provision of raw materials.”
He added that it was not proper for the country to be run on imported products while the local industry remained idle because of lack of raw materials.
Most raw materials, he said, should come from the agricultural sector if it were operating to capacity.
“Our input scheme has so far supported more than 10 000 farmers countrywide and more are still to benefit.
“Initially we were focusing on seed and basal fertilisers only but we have now started giving out Ammonium Nitrate (AN) fertiliser to those farmers who have been meeting their contractual obligations monthly.
“Farmers with good production records and those up to date with their payments have since started receiving AN under the scheme,” he said.
Mr Zakariya said the scheme involved giving farmer inputs for which he pays only 20 percent of the total cost and settles the balance in four months. This is done at national level and the farmers work in groups of 10 each.
“The scheme is on going and the only challenge we are facing at the moment involves some farmers failing to keep up with their instalments. They are sometimes erratic.
“Remember we are doing this with seed and fertiliser houses and some players in the private sector, people who are in business and need to recover money given out for them to fund other crops other than maize.
“We are now going into winter and there are no funds for the farmers, which forces farmers to rely on schemes like ours so those benefiting from them already must not abuse them.
“They must honour their obligations so that there is always some reserve from where we can draw funds to procure more inputs to help others,” said Mr Zakariya.
Groups in the communal lands have demonstrated that this type of facility is very good for them and have been policing each other and servicing their debts monthly without fail, observed Mr Zakariya.-The Herald
Labels: AGRICULTURE, NEW FARMERS, PAUL ZAKARIYA
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Zimbabwe fails to meet winter wheat target: ZFU
Herald Reporters
ZIMBABWE, traditionally a net importer of wheat, should brace for increased purchases of the cereal this year after farmers only managed to cultivate 7 000 hectares of the projected 60 000ha of the crop this winter season.
According to Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union director, Mr Paul Zakariya, Zimbabwe may harvest just 10 000 tonnes against annual national requirements of 450 000 tonnes. The yield could further decrease if
power supplies for irrigation do not improve.
In a good year, Zimbabwe can produce about 150 000 tonnes but this year production is low enough to be negligible. Some farmers ditched the crop for barley this season because the latter is supported by contracting firms. Bindura farmer Mrs Diana Bepura said she abandoned wheat because of constant power cuts in her area.
"We spend more than two days without power and this has affected other farming projects that heavily depend on irrigation," she said.
Mass Producers Farm supervisor Mr Crispen Chiminya said he was forced to cut the hectarage under wheat.
"We had planned to grow 33 hectares of wheat but only managed 15 hectares which we are battling with. Those who planted early are struggling with irrigation. For the last two weeks some wheat growing areas did not have electricity and this will obviously affect yields at the end of the season," he said.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made acknowledged the problems farmers were experiencing.
"Farmers are battling with the planted crop and failing to observe their irrigation cycles due to erratic electricity supplies.
"They are having difficulties dealing with irrigation when electricity is usually available three to four hours a day," he said.
Farmers said power is usually restored during the night making it difficult to water their crop.
The winter season started late with few farmers planting ahead of the June 1 deadline while some with limited resources waited for Government subsidies, which were largely not forthcoming.
Labels: PAUL ZAKARIYA, WHEAT, ZFU
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Season records low winter wheat hectrage
Herald Reporters
Farmers have this winter wheat season so far planted 7 000 hectares compared to 11 000 last year. This year’s national target was set at 60 000 hectares. There are fears farmers might fail to surpass the 10 000 hectares mark.
The greatest challenge they face is unreliable power supply that seriously affected irrigation schedules.
Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union director Mr Paul Zakariya was however, optimistic that the hectarage under wheat would increase to 15 000 if farmers continued planting beyond the cut off date of June 1.
"Not much is happening on the ground in terms of wheat planting.
"Inputs came late and most farmers have decided to either cut their hectarage while others abandoned wheat production this season," Mr Zakariya said.
The Government’s US$10 million subsidised inputs came after the planting dates and this affected some farmers seriously.
"The situation is bad for some farmers who do not have cash to buy the subsidised fertilizers going for US$15 per bag," he said.
Meanwhile, power interruptions have also affected the wheat that has already germinated.
The crop is suffering from moisture stress and frost.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Mr Wilson Nyabonda said wheat heavily depended on electricity availability and constant cuts posed a great challenge this season.
Commenting on the power outages, Energy and Power Development Minister Elias Mudzuri said not every wheat farmer would get constant electricity supply.
He said Government had identified certain clusters that had major wheat producers to supply with power to ensure maximum productivity.
Minister Mudzuri said Zesa was compelled to supply electricity to the selected wheat growers and those with queries should approach his Ministry for assistance.
"We selected major wheat producers through the Ministry of Agriculture and farmers are having three days per week of consistent power supply. If people are not receiving the normal allocation they should feel free to visit our offices. Zesa is actually compelled to supply the farmers without any interruptions," he said.
Initially, Zesa Holdings promised uninterrupted electricity supply three days a week for the winter cropping season this year but this is not the situation in most areas.
Farmers who had an early crop have started counting their losses as it is being affected by constant power cuts.
In Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East provinces, farmers are going for two weeks without electricity.
The nation requires 450 000 tonnes of wheat but for the past few years has been failing to meet the target as yields continued to decrease.
This is mainly being caused by late distribution of inputs and unreliable power supply.
This year some farmers who had been producing wheat for years shifted to barley under contract farming because of the guarantee of early inputs and ready market.
Last year wheat production was affected by the financial constraints as most farmers failed to buy the inputs, which were readily available on the market.
Labels: PAUL ZAKARIYA, WHEAT
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Farmers, ginners to continue price negotiations
New Ziana
THE Cotton Ginners’ Association and farmers have agreed to go back to the negotiating table for a review of the cotton price, an official has said. This followed failure to agree on the minimum price for the crop at a cotton conference held on Tuesday.
Cotton farmers are protesting against the minimum price of US$0,30 per kg, which they felt was not sustainable. Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union director Mr Paul Zakariya yesterday said they had resolved that stakeholders should meet again next week to find ways to improve the price.
“We agreed to review the price of US$0,30 and also that no buyer should pay anything below US$0,30.”
“US$0,30 is the minimum ginners should pay cotton farmers for the lowly graded cotton,” said Mr Zakariya
Competition, he added, was still open as buyers could still pay more to lure farmers.
In neighbouring countries, cotton was sold at a lower price than US$0,30 with farmers still realising profits because of low production costs
In Mozambique, farmers are being paid about US$0,22 per kg while in Zambia and Malawi respectively the price is between US$0,25 and US$0,30.
However, in Zimbabwe, farmers are demanding between US$1-US$1,75 per kg owing to the high cost of production. The CGA has remained adamant that it cannot pay the prices that farmers were asking for.
They argued that the cotton had to go through various other production processes, with cotton lint currently fetching about US$0,78 on the world market.
The ginners also called on farmers to boost their production per hectare as well as improving the quality of their crop.
Mr Zakariya urged Government to assist the farmers through pushing for a decrease in the production costs.
“Government should come up with schemes to cushion cotton farmers to lower production cost for farmers to realise profit.”
“Currently the cost of production is very high, forcing farmers to demand more which does not tally with the world market,” said Mr Zakariya.
He also urged Government to introduce modern farming methods, which would be less expensive.
“Government should reconsider bio-technology in cotton production which has low production costs, few inputs and modified seeds which cannot be easily attacked by pests and diseases,” he added.
This technology, he said, has been used successfully in Brazil and other countries which are top cotton producers in the world.
Cotton, popularly referred to as “white gold”, is one of the country’s top agricultural exports, coming second after tobacco. — New Ziana.
Labels: COTTON, PAUL ZAKARIYA
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