Zimbabwe: Tobacco Farmers Hail Agro-Cheques

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) 22 May 2008 05/23/2008

TOBACCO farmers have hailed the introduction of agro-cheques, which came into circulation on Tuesday. The farmers said the introduction of the cheques was a welcome relief and would go a long way in ensuring that they access their proceeds as quickly as possible. "The Government should be commended for listening to our concerns and acting on those concerns. "While we may have had worried about the onset of the selling season because of the delays in Government addressing our concerns, it is now shaping up to be a good season," said Mrs Charity Chikasi of Headlands. Other farmers said the cheques would enable them to quickly make purchases before returning to their homes. "We were spending a lot of time and money while waiting to get our money and when we did get the old cheques we were at the mercy of shop owners but we are glad that this has been sorted out. "We are happy that we can now get our money before its value has been eroded," said Mr Richard Konde of Odzi. A number of banks had by late Tuesday requested for the cheques, which would be released to merchants who would then pay them to farmers. The cheques, which are as good as bearer cheques and can be used as legal tender anywhere, come in $5 billion, $25 billion and $50 billion denominations. They expire in December. The issue of withdrawal limits was one of the few concerns that tobacco farmers had raised at the beginning of the selling season apart from that of the exchange rate and support price. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe dealt with the other issues when it liberalised the foreign exchange market, which resulted in farmers having their proceeds being calculated at the interbank rate. The introduction of the interbank rate resulted in the new support price of $70 million per US$ earned that had been proposed for this season falling away. Enditem