RBZ Non-Payment Grounds Farmers

Source from:  thestandard.co.zw BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE  02/25/2008

ABOUT 70% of tobacco and wheat farmers might not plant this season because the government has not paid them for last year's deliveries, The Standard has been told. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) promised to pay tobacco farmers 20% of their receipts in foreign currency under a programme the bank put in place last year to boost crop production. Presenting his mid-year monetary policy statement late last year, the governor, Gideon Gono promised to settle outstanding Foreign Currency Accounts payments to tobacco farmers by the end of October last year. Last week, the farmers said they had still not been paid. Farmers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said non-payment from the RBZ and the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the unviable prices of commodities and the shortage of farming inputs were eroding their confidence in farming. They predicted Zimbabwe would experience another poor harvest this season if farmers were not paid in time. Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union (ZCFU) president Wilson Nyabonda confirmed the majority of tobacco and wheat farmers had not been paid. He said they were in a quandary over the non-payment and appealed to the RBZ and the GMB to pay them soon the inflation-adjusted prices for their produce. "Farmers can't prepare for the next season because they cannot buy fertiliser, seed or chemicals. They will soon be unable to pay their workers," he said. Nyabonda said it was no longer sustainable to get the $42 million a tonne of wheat that the government agreed with farmers last year because it had been eroded by hyperinflation. "With that figure a farmer needs to sell over 200 tonnes of wheat to buy a 200 litre drum of oil (lubricant) which, in short, means we need supplementary payment," he said. Apart from that, Nyabonda said farm workers, paid $3 million a month last October, were now earning 20 times that amount. Last week the farmers held an all-stakeholders' meeting in Harare where they resolved to send emissaries to the RBZ and GMB to press for payment. Nyabonda urged the government to adopt a market-driven pricing policy to address the agriculture sector's problems. "The answer to our problems is to have an open market policy at farmer level," he said. The GMB's public relations officer, Joseph Katete, had not responded to questions e-mailed to him while RBZ spokesperson Kumbirai Nhongo said he was in a meeting and would call back. Questions sent to Nhongo's office were not responded to by the time of going to press. Reports of non-payment by the RBZ and the GMB would worsen the food shortages, especially in the wake of estimates that Zimbabwe would only produce 30% of its national maize requirements this year. Already, about 3,5 million people are surviving on food aid, according to UN estimates. Agriculture experts blame the food crisis on poor agricultural planning by government, and the excessive rains which fell especially in December last year. Enditem