Zimbabwean Government Plans to Deploy Security Forces to Force Farmers to Sell Maize Stock to GMB
- The Zimbabwean government is set to force farmers to supply grain to the country's sole grain buyer
- This comes after the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture sent a letter to the Grain Marketing Board about farmers not supplying enough grain
- The ministry believes farmers are selling their grain on the side because of the low price offered by GMB
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ZIMBABWE - The Zimbabwean government is not happy with the low stock of maize being supplied to the country's only grain buyer, the Grain Marketing Board (GMB).
As result, the government plans to deploy security forces to confiscate maize stocks from farmers. The country's Lands and Agriculture Permanent Secretary John Basera sent a letter to the marketing board demanding that they work with security forces and conduct "gran busting operations."
Source: Getty Images
According to TimesLIVE, the Ministry believes that farmers are not supplying grain to GMB because of side-marketing tendencies. The government says 30 000MT has been harvested, however, GMB has only received approximately 5 000MT in deliveries since 1 April 2022.
"You are therefore required to operationalise the provisions of S.I 145/19 to prevent and avert the side marketing of grain with immediate effect," read the letter.
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The grain-busting operations will include searching non-GMB depots and setting up roadblocks to check permits.
The Ministry says farmers have been reluctant to sell their grain to GMB because of low prices and delayed payments. GMB has since pledged to increase the pay by 30% in US dollars and the other 70% in Zim dollars.
This is not the first time the Zim government has resorted to confiscating grains from farmers. During the late President Robert Mugabe's presidency in 2002, the government confiscated about 36 000 tons and accused farmers of hoarding maize, reports IOL.
Zimbabwe's economy in freefall, banks ordered to suspend lending, inflation increases to 96% in 4 months
Briefly News previously reported that the Zimbabwean government ordered banks to stop lending to the government and public with immediate effect. Year on year inflation has risen to 96.4% in April from 60.6% in January.
This was done in an effort to prevent the weakening Zimbabwean dollar from losing any more value. The currency is rapidly losing value against the US dollar in the black market.
Official exchange rates quote the Zimbabwean dollar at 165 against the US dollar. However, on the black market, a US dollar is worth 330 - 400 Zimbabwean dollars.
Source: Briefly News
