Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The government has urged farmers in drier regions of the country to grow small grains that are more drought-tolerant instead of maize.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister, Anxious Masuka, said farmers in regions 4 and 5 should not grow maize unless they are doing it under irrigation.
Masuka assured farmers that they will be allowed to exchange their small grains for maize at their nearest Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depot.
He was speaking at the handover of plots to farmers who were displaced when Greenfuel took over the ARDA estate in Chisumbanje, on the back of a joint venture agreement around 2009. Said Masuka:
We know people like maize sadza. When we say farmers should not grow it unless their conditions permit, we are not saying they should forgo eating maize.
We have come up with a plan, in which farmers will take their sorghum to their nearest GMB (Grain Marketing Board) and for every bucket of sorghum, millet, or rapoko, they will get one bucket and a gallon of maize.
He added that the government has put in place a system to ensure that the grain swaps are done at every GMB depot in the country.
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