The Sunday Mail
Munyaradzi Mlambo
As the 2022-2023 cropping season beckons, Government has already signalled its intention to continue various agriculture support programmes to improve production, productivity and enhance smallholder farmers’ incomes.
Government supports farmers through the Climate-Proofed Presidential Inputs Support Scheme (also known as Pfumvudza/Intwasa) and the National Enhanced Agricultural Productivity Scheme, formerly known as Command Agriculture.
Pfumvudza is further segmented into sub-schemes for cotton production, which is mainly administered by Cottco and another one for grain production supported by the Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services (Agritex) through Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots.
The two schemes are at the centre of driving agricultural production in the country, together with private sector support.
However, the inputs scheme model in its current form is vulnerable to abuse.
We have read in newspapers how this noble initiative is often hijacked by unscrupulous individuals for personal gain.
In fact, cases of input theft are rampant and under-reported. Without improvement, the initiative will not help achieve household food security to the expected extent. The development of a robust system to make the schemes more effective is, therefore, imperative.
Ring-fencing inputs distribution
The first step should be to identify deserving farmers.
Not all farmers deserve free inputs, some require a different kind of support.
Vetting of deserving farmers should take into consideration a farmer’s performance in the previous season.
This can be done through auditing what the farmer delivered to the GMB in the last season. Agritex officers should record beneficiaries’ harvests.
By linking inputs to performance, farmers with an impeccable record of good yield and delivery to GMB should be given priority.
They should also be targeted for further training, which will allow them to become self-financing farmers who regard farming as a business. Farmers who failed to perform in the previous season should receive support commensurate with their capacity in addition to receiving more training and technical assistance. Because inputs are a finite resource, targeting high-performing farmers will lead to food security.
This year, Pfumvudza will have specific input packages for different ecological regions.
Government is to be commended for taking this route which acknowledges diversification across provinces.
This entails that extension support should be tailor-made for each region.
By properly targeting deserving beneficiaries and channelling specific inputs to the right regions, Government will guarantee maximum production.
Penalising offenders
GMB has already started receiving seed and fertiliser earmarked for distribution to beneficiaries countrywide.
This is great news to some unscrupulous individuals who make money from buying inputs from farmers and resell the same.
This brings to the fore the importance of developing a robust system to track the inputs, perhaps tagging them with serial numbers.
Each bag of fertiliser, seed, or chemical should have a serial number.
When a farmer receives the inputs, the serial number should also be recorded by extension and Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) officers against the farmer’s name. The serial number should be unique to each province or district. This makes it easy for police officers at roadblocks to confiscate suspicious inputs and identify their area of origin.
A bag of seed with a serial number that has been tampered with should give police cause to investigate. Police, working in liaison with Agritex officers, can then crosscheck the recipient of the inputs using their database.
Farmers who sell inputs need to be reminded of the responsibility they have to put the taxpayer’s resources to good use.
It is also incumbent upon law enforcement agents to be vigilant and resolute when it comes to apprehending those who purchase inputs from beneficiaries.
At the moment, perhaps, the law is not deterrent enough to stop would-be offenders as demonstrated by the recurrence of the offenses related to inputs misuse and theft.
Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the organisation he works for. Feedback: [email protected]
