NMC BEATS OWN MAIZE RECORD!

MBABANE - The National Maize Corporation (NMC) has beaten both last year’s record and its own projections of maize supplied to the company by farmers since April this year.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sabelo Msibi mader the announcement at this year’s National Maize Competition (NAMCOM) Awards held last Friday at Mphophoma.

He said a combination of factors, including contractual farming and intensive training of farmers, had worked favourably together to yield some 13 000 in tonnes of maize supplied by farmers to the company at the last count. 

Down

Over 9 000t of maize was supplied during the last cropping season, down by some 4 000t compared to this year’s bumper harvest.
Msibi said it was anticipated that the margin would be even bigger as farmers continued to bring their maize to NMC.
The CEO said these quantities had already beaten this year’s target of 12 000t, by 1 000t.

The CEO just could not thank the farmers enough for their hard work.
He also attributed the sharp increase in maize production to NMC’s initiative of taking expert farming knowledge to the farmers by utilising Assistant Farmer Development Officers (AFDOs), who were seconded to the organisation by the Ministry of Agriculture last year.

“The other factor that we believe contributed to increased production is the formal contractual agreements we enter into with farmers stipulating that they produce maize solely for the NMC market.
“All this and other initiatives that I may not single out one by one have positively impacted maize production in the country,” said Msibi. 

Commend

The CEO said as an organisation, they commend the Ministry of Agriculture for continuing to make farming a top priority.
Msibi recounted that it also emerged during the deliberations in the recent Sibaya that farming was one way in which the economy could be grown.
“May we all take it upon ourselves to play a significant role in ensuring that the country is self-sufficient in the area of food security,” Msibi urged. 

The CEO pointed out that the tractor hire services and farm input subsidy programme would significantly improve food security in the country.
He said since they were commissioned by the ministry to oversee the programme they had made good progress, though acknowledging that they had encountered some challenges.

Attendants

In spite of this, Msibi assured attendants that farmers had received the services due to them.
“We had hoped there would be an influx of private tractor owners who would want to take advantage of the opportunities that had been availed.
“However, this was not the case. This has, however, not stopped the programme from continuing as expected,” Msibi explained.

Msibi further commended the ministry for its continued support of the National Maize Competition for the past 28 years.
He also thanked the ministry for trusting NMC to ably sponsor the competition.

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