Black market fertiliser hurting agriculture sector

AS PREPARATIONS for the winter crop gathers momentum, farmers have called on the government to probe how fertilizer finds its way on to the black market when the farmers cannot access the commodity on the formal market.

During the past few weeks the National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC) has recovered tonnes of fertilizer being sold at the black market in places such as Mbare in Harare and Renkini bus terminus in Bulawayo.

“Although there is no fertilizer plant in Mbare, there is abundance of the commodity at the market. There’s a need to find out the source of the fertilizer that is being sold on the black market,” said Lovemore Jena, a newly resettled farmer in Chegutu.

Jena said such tendencies, if unattended to, would make it impossible to turn around the fortunes of the country’s economy.

What is more worrying, said Jena, is that some of the fertilizer was sourced by the government from China through the Grain Marketing Board (GMB).

Equally disturbing is the fact that some farmers have also contributed towards retrogressive practices by not utilizing fertilizer allocated to them under the scheme.

This reporter is aware of a tonne of Compound D fertilizer from China belonging to a new farmer which has been stacked in a backroom of a supermarket in the central business district of Bulawayo where it was exposed to the rains during the last planting season.

The availability of fertilizer and other farming inputs on the parallel market is rife whenever farmers are gearing up for a new farming season.

The shortages of fertilizer such as Compound C and D that are crucial for both the growing wheat and maize have already affected preparations for the winter crop.

‘”As farmers, we are tired of the same problems of shortage of inputs every year when the black market is awash with them. There is need to scrutinize the process of how the fertilizer is distributed and how it ends up on the black market,” said another commercial farmer.

The fertilizer that is being found on the black market is being sold at prices that are beyond the reach of many farmers.