The Zimbabwe government has more than doubled the price it will pay for maize and wheat in a bid to boost production in the famished Southern African country, a newspaper said on Wednesday.
According to the state-controlled Herald, maize will now be bought for Z$300 000 (US$364) a tonne, up from Z$130 000, while wheat will now fetch a price of Z$400 000 (US$485) a tonne, up from Z$150 000 dollars.
Millet and sorghum will be bought at the same price as maize, the paper said.
It is the second time this year that the government, which is the sole legal buyer of grain, has hiked the producer price for wheat and maize, amid reports that farmers were holding on to their harvests because of the poor prices offered.
However, the government-run Grain Marketing Board will continue to sell maize and wheat to millers for less than the buying price, the newspaper said.
Zimbabwe is critically short of food due to poor harvests, which the government blames on drought but which aid agencies blame partly on the country’s controversial government land-reform programme.
Under the reforms, launched in 2000, land was taken from white farmers and redistributed to landless black people, often with little or no farming experience, causing production levels to plummet.
The United Nations’s World Food Programme estimates that 5,5 million of Zimbabwe’s 11,6 million people will require emergency food aid by the end of the year. — Sapa-AFP