GMB FAILS TO PAY WHEAT FARMERS  

                                       Posted in News Updates on 20th February, 2008

                                                           By Tulani Mpofu

BULAWAYO - The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) is failing to pay farmers for wheat delivered to the parastatal since October last year. 

Irate farmers in Nyamandlovu area, some 30km west of Bulawayo have threatened to take the GMB to court, saying the parastatal’s failure to pay them is adversely affecting their farm operations.

“I delivered 80 tonnes of wheat to the GMB depot at Tshabalala here in Bulawayo on 28 October last year,” said a Nyamandlovu farmer, Sweet Chiyangwa.

“I expected them to pay me $5,6 billion for the crop about two weeks after delivery but up to now I have not received anything. I spoke to the GMB officials here in Bulawayo but they cannot help. I ended up speaking to their financial director in Harare, a Chivasa. He told me that the reason why we have not been paid is because of a problem between Agribank and GMB.”

As a result of the delayed payment, Chiyangwa said he does not have money to pay his workers and to fund other farm operations.

Chiyangwa said he would approach the court on Friday to force the GMB to pay up.

“When I spoke to Chivasa, I told him that I will go to court if I do not get paid by Friday,” he said.

The GMB has in recent years struggled to pay for deliveries of produce by farmers because of lack of funds.

The problems at the grain utility mirror the general rot in the country’s farming industry following the farm seizures of 2000.

As a result, analysts say farm production has declined by an estimated 60 percent across the board.

Side marketing promotion.

 Chiyangwa said by failing to pay farmers for their produce, the GMB is unwittingly promoting side marketing of the crop.

 “Do you think I will sell to the GMB again after this experience? In October, I could have used the $5,6 billion to buy something important, but what does it buy now?” fumed Chiyangwa.

Another Nyamandlovu farmer, Noel Mathe complained: “This delay is forcing me to spend most of my time at the GMB and not on the farm. It is a crisis really. We want to feed the country but how can we do that now? The money will come, if it finally does with no interest and inflation is eroding it. So it will be worthless whenever it comes.”

The GMB is the only authorised buyer of grain, crops that are critical to the country's reserves. In Zimbabwe wheat is grown under irrigation in winter but power cuts have often affected production.

Last year, the sector had targeted to plant 76 000 hectares under wheat, but farmers only managed to plant around 45 000.

Another wheat deficit is already on the door step owing to the farmers failure to meet the targted 400 000 tonnes needed for national consumption per year.

In 2007, the price of bread was going up twice or thrice a week with bakers complaining about a shortage of flour.

 Payment system confusion

Last year, the Reserve Bank pegged the producer price of wheat at US$250 per tonne but according to Modesta Ndlovu, another farmer, the much-touted foreign currency payouts are not forthcoming. “I feel betrayed,” she said.

Under the new payment system, the central bank promised to pay half the producer price in foreign currency and the other in local currency, using the official exchange rate.

Contacted for comment yesterday, GMB general manager, Albert Mandizha professed ignorance over the delayed payment, but promised to look into the matter. “You have to be clear about the payment system,” he said.

“There are two types. Half is paid in foreign currency by the Reserve Bank and we pay the other half. So I do not know what they mean.”  - ZimEye