COMMENT: GMB must gear up to match prices in relaxed market

Sensible policies aren’t static. They remain relevant to situations as they evolve.  They are meant to not only promote business, but also to promote the public good.

When the public good is under threat, there is a need to tighten policies and severely punish elements that flout them.  When the public good is not under threat, it makes sense to free up, for business to thrive.  However, laissez-faire policies can be dangerous.

The Government is attempting to achieve the foregoing balance by, as the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka, says elsewhere in this edition today, relaxing regulations on marketing of agricultural produce starting from this year’s marketing season.  While the Government has eased the trading system, the minister warned, it will not be left at the mercy of the so-called market forces, for market forces really don’t exist.

A few years ago, when national food insecurity was high due to recurrent droughts, new farmers getting into the grove and when some foreign powers were attempting to manipulate food supply for political ends, there was a clear need for authorities to be more vigilant.  As a result, it instituted controls in trade in maize by making the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) the sole legal buyer of the staple in the country.  We are confident that, that policy contributed to ensuring that the mischief makers at home and abroad did not have it their way.

Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka

But production is rising now as the new farmers establish roots into the land and the foreign and local machinations don’t appear as strong as they used to be during the first decade from the turn of the millennium, there seems to be no reason to maintain the GMB monopoly.

Therefore, speaking in Victoria Falls recently, Dr Masuka said self-contracted farmers will have the freedom to sell their maize to whoever offers the price they want.

“You can’t market where there is no production,” he said.

“When there is production and productivity, then you will free up the market. Where we are coming from is that in the past 20 years we have not been able to produce enough maize to feed ourselves but the situation changed during the past few seasons as we managed to produce enough. What we are doing now is we are now gradually reviewing the Statutory Instrument 145 of 2019, which restricted the marketing of maize to Grain Marketing Board and from this marketing season onwards, anyone who has contracted will be able to freely get their contracted maize to their warehouse.”

We hope that this gradual opening up for self-financing farmers, will enable industry to buy as much maize as they need.  Producers should also get favourable prices, perhaps in the currency they agree with the buyer as well.  That must produce a win-win scenario that boosts business on both sides.

However, it is obvious that this dispensation will not apply to growers enrolled on public input schemes.  These must produce for the national granary, and of course, their household consumption for greater national food security.

Soyabean

We hope the GMB will continue paying farmers attractive prices so that the national silos remain full to meet the food requirements for certain sections of society.  In December, the Government set the maize pre-planting producer price at US$335 per tonne, the same as that for traditional grains.  The soya bean price is US$597 per tonne while that for sunflower was set at US$687 per tonne. These are impressive prices, which encourage farmers to work and enable them to make a profit.

In addition to paying attractive prices, GMB must pay more promptly.