The farmers are drawn mostly from the communal resettlements confiscated under the controversial land reform.

Even the commercial land owners were not spared from the brunt of this maize pricing.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union which represents commercial farmers joined to voice its concern as well.

In a statement presented by the farmers’ coalition, it is said that the Zimbabwe government advised farmers that its grain company, the Grain Marketing Board will only accept a maize producer price of between US$250 and US$265 per tonne.

According to ZFU, these prices were unjustifiable and could lend most farmers into debt as they cannot break even with southern African market trends.

It would appear that the Zimbabwean farmers are arguing from the fact that the Government price is way too high as compared with the US$220 being offered by South Africa at the moment, a situation that might force grain millers to abort local maize.

In an interview with journalists, Donald Khumalo, the commercial farmers’ secretary general said if the Ministry of Agriculture does not rectify the situation, farmers will just keep their maize.

“People have maize but would not be forced to sell it since the current production costs are not at par with the selling costs. If we sell maize at this price, we are actually making loses given that the cost of producing a tonne last year in some cases ran up to US$700,” Khumalo said.

Khumalo added that in the course of the planting season last year, farmers had to buy 50kg bags of Compound D fertiliser for R500 and seed for close to R1 500 for a 25kg bag on the black-market.

Khumalo concurred the Zimbabwean market is now flooded with lots of imported maize, which was far cheaper than the locally produced grain, even when transport costs were considered, since the imported maize was subsidised.

“This means that those that are selling, are selling at less than the Government rates because of the influx of competition from imported grain.”

According to some farmers, it is ironic that the Government itself does not have money to buy grain from farmers and at the same time it offers unattractive prices.

Paul Zakariya of the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union said the issue was not with the pricing at most but with how grain is marketed.

“Our organisation had estimated that the average cost of producing a tonne of maize in the last agricultural season was US$287, which is higher than the US$265 being offered by GMB.

“As such we have decided to recall the government price and hold on to our maize to avoid losses,” he said.

Zakaria also reiterated most farmers’ sentiments that the GMB did not have the money to buy maize while cheap imports were readily available and there are bogus traders who were taking advantage of the situation to buy maize and resell it at a higher price.

Information on the grounds has it that there are some farmers who were so desperate that they were even selling their grain for as little as US$100 per ton.

The stranglehold between the Zimbabwean government and its farmers is a new twist that unravels the effects of Mugabe’s land grab as the bulk of these farmers do not have farming and marketing expertise.