Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company managing director, Dr Richard Dafana has said that the exclusion of his company from the Presidential Inputs scheme was a huge cause for concern particularly given their good track record.
Briefing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement chaired by Gokwe Nembudziya MP, Cde Justice Mayor Wadyajena (Zanu-PF) during a familiarisation tour at the plant in Harare, Dafana said:
We have never failed to deliver any order that we were given. We want preference in Government contracts. We are not crybabies; let us compete fairly, we want a fair opportunity. Also being a Government entity, there must be some merit in considering us.
Dafana added that it is difficult for companies who were not part of the Government orders like Command Agriculture and the Presidential Inputs Scheme since the programmes capture a large number of farmers.
Recently, some farmers have been ditching farming due to drought which saw irrigations drying up, a development reported to have also affected this year’s winter wheat production.