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China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
Image from the Hindu
The Zimbabwean government has announced new plans, including land use rights review programs and agricultural crop subsidies to expand agricultural production, which may significantly increase demand for seeds, fertilizers and pesticides.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has come up with a new economic recovery scheme dubbed the "New Economic Order," which includes the Special Agriculture Production Program (SAPP) — also referred to as Command Agriculture.
The push for increased agricultural production by the new government has opened new business opportunities for Zimbabwean planting seed material suppliers and agrichemical manufacturers despite initial farm input supply challenges.
Mnangagwa has also directed the Ministry of Finance, in partnership with the Agriculture Ministry, to restructure and streamline operations of the Presidential Input Scheme, which has been marred by allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the distribution of farm inputs to farmers.
SAPP, with the backing of the private sector, targets improvement and expansion of extension services, disease and pest control, provision of bankable leases and security of tenure, irrigation services, and farm mechanization.
To successfully implement SAPP, the government has increased allocations to the ag sector in the 2018 budget to 9% of the total national budget, up from 7% last year. The budget includes financing to expand maize production to 220,000 hectares (ha) under the Command Agriculture program. This maize production plan will cost an estimated $214 million in 2018 and includes supply of farm inputs, such as planting seed, fertilizer, and selected agrichemicals.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in his 2018 budget statement that the government had, by the end of December 2017, contracted 46,404 maize farmers with an estimated 219,900 ha to grow the crop under the SAPP initiative. The 220,000 ha intended for maize production will require 4,109 tons of planting seed, 29,489 tons of basal fertilizer, and 1,229 tons of top dressing that could be either ammonium sulfate (dry) or ammonium thiosulfate (liquid).
Currently there is critical shortage of soya bean planting seeds. Only 2,750 tons are available against a requirement of 6,000 tons to achieve soya been production targets under Command Agriculture program.
The fertilizer industry, too, faces challenges. Indications are that Zimbabwe is currently sitting on 120,000 tons of fertilizer ready for disposal to the market. The industry has the capacity to produce an additional 160,000 tons between this November and January 2019.
