“Pfumvudza/Intwasa inputs for all”

Harare (New Ziana) –AGRICULTURAL inputs under the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme will be distributed to everyone irrespective of whether or not they have prepared the planting holes, a Cabinet Minister has said.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, said this in the National Assembly in response to a question from Manicaland Proportional Representation legislator, Lucia Chitura, who wanted to know Government plans for the elderly, who cannot prepare the required planting holes.

Chitura said in some areas, extension workers were only registering households that would have prepared the planting holes.

“The Government policy is that everyone should get Pfumvudza inputs,” said Ziyambi.

“If it is happening anywhere, that is not what we agreed to in relation to distribution of Pfumvudza inputs. Policy does not say only those who will have dug holes should get, but everyone should be given.”

Ziyambi urged those who have been denied the inputs to approach their respective Ministers of State or write to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development.

“What we agreed to as Government is for everyone to be given the Pfumvudza inputs. If there are some, who are being denied, it needs follow up because I cannot respond as to why they are not being given but the Ministry of Agriculture will be in a better position to investigate why the agreed position is not being implemented on the ground, he explained.

This year the Government has said it would distribute the inputs to match the ecological regions to ensure optimum production and guarantee national food security.

In the past, the inputs were distributed without regard to the suitability of crops to particular areas, with maize seed in particular, being given to farmers across the regions.

This cropping season, farmers in Regions 1 and 2 will be given more maize seed (10kg per plot) and less traditional grains seeds, which do not do well in these areas.

In Regions 3, 4 and 5 this will be reduced to 5 kg or 2 kg per plot with farmers receiving more traditional grains such as sorghum, traditional peas and pearl millet in order to compensate for this.

At least 3.5 million households are being targeted under the Pfumvudza/Intawasa programme after the Government released $20 billion as part of early preparations for the 2022-23 summer cropping season.

Last year the Government provided inputs to 2.7million communal, A1, small-scale commercial, old resettlement and peri-urban farmers for cereals, oilseeds and legumes.

This season the programme is targeting to support five plots (measuring 39 meters by 16 metres) per household with packages including maize,
sorghum, pearl millet, soyabeans, sunflower, groundnuts, vegetables and traditional peas.

The Government has indicated its desire to ensure food security, especially at a time when global food supply chains have been disrupted over the past two years by the Covid-19 pandemic and, recently by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

New Ziana