An operation has been initiated by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to prevent the theft of agricultural inputs intended to be delivered to smallholder farmers throughout the nation as part of the Presidential Inputs Programme.
Since distribution started, 22 people have been arrested, five armed robberies involving Presidential inputs have been reported, and approximately 90 tonnes of fertiliser have been recovered, according to GMB Chief Executive Officer Edson Badarai, according to State media.
It is said that some of the offenders are rerouting the inputs for resale on the underground market. Badarai stated:
Together with law enforcement, the GMB is conducting a blitz to recover inputs that are being sold on the illegal market.
89.4 tonnes of fertilisers that were stolen from the Presidential Inputs Programme and sold on the illicit market have been recovered thus far as a result of the blitz.
The goal of the blitz is to ruin the inputs’ market and make them unattractive to dealers.
There have been five documented occurrences of input-related robberies, adding a new facet to criminal activity that in prior years had primarily involved dishonest beneficiaries.
In order to avert these kinds of situations, a group of GMB employees, extension officers, and ZRP members escorts inputs from GMB depots to the wards.
Concurrently, five alleged robbers were apprehended lately subsequent to pilfering $30 000 worth of agricultural supplies from a Grain Marketing Board (GMB) warehouse.
The five members of the gang allegedly broke into a GMB depot in Charandura, Chirumanzu, and took 17 sacks of shelled ground nuts and 540 bags of compound D fertiliser, loading them onto their truck.
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