An audit has uncovered cases in which people without legitimate farming operations accessed agricultural inputs under Zimbabwe’s Presidential Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme, raising fresh concerns over weak oversight within the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development.
The findings were presented to Parliament on Thursday by the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament of Zimbabwe, which said poor internal controls had allowed abuse of a scheme meant to boost household food security and national grain production.
Committee member Caston Matewu said the revelations emerged from the Auditor General’s report on the Appropriation Fund Accounts.
“The audit revealed significant instances of misappropriation of inputs from the Pfumvudza/Intwasa presidential programme, stemming from inadequate internal controls and weak supervision at various distribution centres, particularly in Nyika District, Masvingo Province and Mashonaland Central Province,” he said.
According to the committee, an internal ministry report also showed that some officers from the Agricultural Technical and Extension Services Department (Agritex) in Makonde District, Mashonaland West, improperly distributed inputs and irrigation equipment to individuals who did not operate legitimate farms.
“Some recipients procured inputs through fraudulent registration of non-existent farms, mainly due to insufficient supervision controls that failed to enforce compliance with established distribution procedures,” Matewu told lawmakers.
The accounting officer in the agriculture ministry informed the committee that disciplinary processes had been instituted in some cases.
“In the Masvingo Nyika case, a disciplinary hearing was conducted and officers involved were ordered to reimburse the resources, with repayments being made through a stop-order system,” Matewu said, adding that one of the implicated officers died before the final judgement was issued.
He said investigations were under way in Mashonaland West, Makonde, by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, while in another Masvingo case an officer was reported to police, arrested and was appearing in court.
The committee said the ministry lacked a robust verification system to confirm that beneficiaries were genuine farmers.
“The Ministry does not have a proper internal system in the selection and distribution of inputs. As such, the current checks and balances are prone to abuse and corruption,” Matewu said.
To curb further losses, the committee recommended that by 31 March 2026 the ministry should review its input distribution system and begin rolling out a digital tracking mechanism to monitor inputs in real time.
It also directed ZACC to submit, within three months of the adoption of the report, a comprehensive update on all cases referred to it by the ministry.
The Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme is one of the government’s flagship agricultural initiatives, supplying seed, fertiliser and other inputs to smallholder farmers as part of efforts to improve food security and climate resilience.
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