Elita Chikwati Senior Agriculture Reporter
The distribution of inputs under the Presidential Well Wishers Agriculture Inputs Scheme (PWAIS) is going on smoothly with more than 1,2 million households across the country having received maize and small grains seed, a Cabinet Minister has said. The Presidential Well-Wishers Agriculture Inputs Scheme is expected to benefit 1,8 million households this year an increase from the 800 000 households who received inputs last season.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made yesterday said there was great improvement in the distribution of inputs both under the Presidential Well-Wishers Agriculture Inputs Scheme and the Special Maize and Special Soyabean programme for Import Substitution (Command Agriculture) this season compared to the past years although transport challenges were causing delays in the movement of inputs in some areas.
Farmers were urged to continue taking advantage of areas where there was rain to intensify planting. “Under the Presidential Well-Wishers Inputs Scheme, 1 234 000 households have received maize seed with 45 300 households receiving small grains seed.
“At least 500 000 households have received soyabean seed and 300 000 households have received cotton seed, 765 000 households have received basal fertilisers while 110 000 households received top dressing fertilisers. “There is still need for the movement of cotton seed and the major concern is the processing of the seed. I have since approached the supplier to speed up the process,” he said.
Dr Made said there was high demand for cotton seed in new areas that did not receive seed last season, but the farmers had seen the success of the past season and would want to join in growing the cash crop. High demand for soyabean seed has also been noted in peri-urban areas not only out of Harare and Bulawayo, but in most rural provinces.
“Due to the magnitude of the programmes, officials dealing with Presidential Well-Wishers Agricultural Inputs Scheme and Command Agriculture should work beyond normal hours. “We urge seed houses that still have seed to quickly move it. Officials should not cause unnecessary delays in inputs distribution and such cases should be reported to the ministry.
“The delays in the movement of seed are mainly due to transport shortages. We want to push more seed so that there is seed even in remote areas. Major preparations should focus on top dressing fertilisers.
“As we are looking for compound fertilisers we should continue to keep our focus on top dressing fertiliser as we go into the rainy season.
“If the rains increase we will require a lot of top dressing fertilisers.
“We encourage those with free funds to purchase top dressing fertilisers,” he said.
Dr Made said he was happy with the condition of livestock across the country and improvement of pastures and water due to the recent rains.
There were some areas where livestock especially the young were affected by the decline in temperatures.