By Claver Nyuki
Government through the District Development Fund (DDF) has come to the rescue of villagers by offering affordable transport to ferry their grain to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) after the villagers had become prey to private transporters who were charging exorbitant fees.
Despite the depredations of Cyclone Idai in Manicaland province, the villagers in and around Chipinge have managed to harvest grain and delivered it to Chipinge GMB.
A villager who spoke to the publication lamented the disastrous effects caused by Cyclone Idai as it destroyed the crops by the villagers.
“The time that cyclone came, it affected us greatly, all the maize crops were affected. We usually harvest five tonnes per hectare but out of the three tonnes, I only managed to harvest eight tonnes and delivered 6.5 tonnes to GMB.
“We would just like to thank GMB and DDF for providing transport to ferry our grain. For the 13 kilometres we were charged ZW$60 instead of ZW$400 being charged by private transporters to cover the same distance,” revealed the villager.
Another villager who spoke to Harare Post applauded the efforts by DDF and appealed to Government to extend its support to ferry inputs from GMB as well.
She said, “We want to thank DDF for transporting our grain to GMB, which made us very happy. Now we appeal to DDF and GMB to extend its support to ferry our inputs when they arrive from GMB because we cannot afford to do it on our own.”
The Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services revealed on its Twitter handle that “DDF has hauled some 305 truckloads from 250 households providing relief to the villagers who were being overcharged by private transporters. Gwenzi, which is 40km from Chipinge, private transporters were charging between $600 - $800 to ferry seven tonnes of maize.
“In the coming 2 weeks, DDF expects to ferry the remaining 215 tonnes of grain from the villagers.”
The agricultural sector is the largest economic sector in Zimbabwe and considered the “engine” of the Zimbabwean economy. Agricultural exports produce approximately Z$13.4 billion annually with 60-70% of Zimbabwe’s population employed in agriculture related activities.
Cognisant of this fact, the Government of Zimbabwe is committed to making the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe vibrant as evidenced by policies such as the Command Agriculture and the Presidential Input Scheme in its bid to achieve a middle class economy by 2030.
