eBusiness Weekly
Elita Chikwati and Kudakwashe Mhundwa
The Oil Seed Association of Zimbabwe (OSAZ) is working on boosting production of oil seeds in the country in order to empower farmers and reduce the import Bill.
The country is producing about 37 440 tonnes against a national demand of about 600 000 tonnes, bleeding the fiscus of $250 million in soyabean seeds and crude oil imports.
This has prompted OSAZ to come up with a programme where it partners farmers to produce the oil crops.
The association provides farmers with inputs such as seed, fertilisers and chemicals among others, while the farmer provides the land.
The farmer will then sell the produce to OSAZ.
In a speech delivered on his behalf by the Secretary in his office, Reverend Paul Damasane, Vice President Kembo Mohadi, applauded OSAZ for identifying correctly and timely the crucial issues facing Government.
He noted that Zimbabwe was using a lot of foreign currency to import oil crops instead of producing them.
“This has seen Zimbabwe being bled to the tune of over $250 million in soya bean seeds and crude oil imports.
“I am also reliably informed that the national demand for oil seeds stands at 600 000 tonnes while the country currently produces 37 440 tonnes. We are encouraged as Government that OSAZ is targeting an additional 5 000 ha which will contribute to an additional 10 000 tonnes of the commodity,” he said.
Addressing stakeholders, OSAZ chairman Marshal Masvikepi, said the programme was aimed at empowering communal farmers who most of the times face financial challenges to procure adequate and correct inputs.
He said the programme was open to all farmers who had land and there was no discrimination as all provinces would benefit.
“We started our organisation in 2016 but last year we started partnering farmers in producing oil seeds. We started with sunflower and did over 1 200 hectares since the programme was rolled out a bit late.
“We were impressed by the yields and some farmers got high yields even though it was a late crop,” he said.
Masvikepi said this year, OSAZ was targeting to fund 320 000ha for sunflower and 5 000ha of soyabean.
“The response from the farmers has been overwhelming.
“So far we have 35 000 farmers who have registered for the programme and more are still coming in. This is the revival of sunflower production in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Masvikepi said farmers had been experiencing challenges in producing oil seed crops due to lack of viable markets and funding.
“Farmers were having difficulties in marketing their crops and the finances and inputs were lacking, but I believe with the current measures being taken by the new Government, we can expect a boom on the production side.
“Zimbabwe should work on ways to tap into the production of oil seed which has potential to boost local production of oil,” he said.
