With harvesting of the 2023/23 soya bean crop already underway in some areas, it is important for farmers to ensure they have proper storage facilities to protect the harvest from moisture, pests and other factors that can lead to spoilage.
Agriculture expert and Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) board chairman Mr Ivan Craig made the call yesterday adding that farmers must store soya beans at the correct moisture content. He challenged farmers to ensure storage facilities are clean and free from pests. Fumigation before storing produce is advisable.
"Major losses are incurred during field drying, harvesting, storage and or homestead drying. Harvesting, threshing, winnowing/cleaning and storage are the critical farm level loss points for soya beans.
"Drying should target to reduce the moisture content to 13 percent. Soya bean grains can be dried naturally by spreading them on a black plastic/concrete floor or traditional cribs using the sun. Artificial drying is done through the use of dryers," said Mr Craig.
He urged farmers to avoid making hasty decisions driven by desperation but to explore different avenues to secure fair prices for their produce before selling.
"It is crucial for farmers to take a proactive approach and actively look for buyers who can offer fair prices for their soya beans," said Mr Craig.
Meanwhile, players from the private sector have chipped in challenging farmers to upscale soya bean production saying doing so would set off a dominos effect in the creation of a vibrant soya bean value chain, as the country moves to attain feed, fibre and oil self-sufficiency.
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United Refineries Group chief executive officer Mr Busisa Moyo said the soya bean value chain had potential to accommodate various agro-processing players through the backward and forward integration of the product's lifecycle.
"The industry is open for occupation with gaps in research, production, marketing and consumption.
"Ideally, as a nation we require close to 300 000 tonnes of soya bean to meet our demand, which creates room for the accommodation of more producers as the country guns for sustainability in the value chain," said Mr Moyo.
Soya bean is a crucial raw material required by various agro-processing companies, as it can be value added to different products compared to other oil seed crops.
"Soya bean is needed in the livestock sector where it provides feeds for poultry, pigs, dairy and beef cattle and the aquaculture sub-sector," said Mr Moyo.
The Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange (ZMX) last year announced that farmers could sell their soya beans on the ZMX platform on the backdrop of a growing appetite for the product on the market given that the rest of products sold on the platform were being readily absorbed with many enquiring about soya beans.
Statistics from the ZMX show that buyers submitted soya bean bids for 500 tonnes at an average price of US$520 per kilogramme worth US$260 000.
Farmers were willing to sell only 32, 50 tonnes at an average price of US$514, 63 valued at US$16 725, 48.
At the end of the auction, all the offered soya bean crop was bought with farmers pocketing US$16 900.
