Farmers urged to desist from side marketing

Harare - Soyabean farmers were on Wednesday urged to employ correct measures for marketing in order to realize good returns.
Soya bean contributes at least 30 percent of all the cooking oil production while cotton seed contributes 50 percent.

Last year, the country produced 150 000 tonnes against a national target of 250 000 tonnes.

National Soyabean Promotion Taskforce chairperson, Sheunesu Mpepereki told this publication more farmers had resorted to improper channels of marketing their crops.

"Side marketing has became a cancerous disease that is affecting most farmers who do not want to employ proper channels of marketing and this has made them not realise good profits from their sweat," he said.
Mupepereki defended as fair prices offered by the GMB but however said failure to peg favorable prices was also a causative to side marketing.

He however said there was need to educate farmers more on soyabean production.

"Most farmers do not have the necessary knowledge but we are trying o engage Agritex to offer some training especially to young farmers but also those Agritex officers also need to upgrade their knowledge so that they equip farmers with relevant knowledge".

Zimbabwe has a soya bean crushing capacity of 450 000 tonnes per annum but the industry is operating below 10 percent capacity utilisation.

Analysts say there is need to improve smallholder soya production from the average yields of 0,5 tonnes per hectare to two tonnes per hectare while commercial producers should move from the average of 1,8 tonnes per hectare to three tonnes per hectare.

At peak production in 2000, Zimbabwe produced 170 000 tonnes of the legume, but the levels of production have continued to drop since then.